Two Weeks and After
by Pyromanic Kittie
Summary: Two weeks have passed since Zaria had first met the peculiar Steve Rogers and she is at a loss of what to do with herself until circumstances bring them back together. What is going to happen to these two Socially Awkward people and what will SHIELD have to say about it? The continuation of the Two Hours is a Lifetime one shot. Rated M for possible upcoming scenes
1. Chapter 1

"You're depressing the customers." Joe said as he came out of the back room.

Zaria jumped and shook her head as she focused on cleaning the bar top. "I don't know what you mean."

Joe laughed, a heavy booming sound, and slapped a heavy hand on her shoulder. "Come now girl it's obvious to everyone here." He filled a pint for a regular then crossed his arms over his massive chest and leaned back against the back counter. "You moped for three days straight then after your day off you came back and just haven't been the same girl. If this keeps up I'm going to have to take you off the schedule for a week at this rate."

Zaria's eyes widened in shock. "No!" She shouted causing several customers to turn their attentions to her and Joe; she blushed. "Please, I'm sorry. It... I'll stop."

Joe stared at Zaria with concern. "You've been here for three years now, Z, you don't think I can't tell when something's wrong? What's bothering kid?"

Zaria flushed as she looked down to clean an already spotless bartop. "It's nothing. It's stupid." She muttered.

Joe thumped her on the back and glared at her. "If it's upsetting you it's not stupid. The regulars are gettin' concerned they haven't seen you nearly this depressed, not since your babulya died."

Zaria pursed her lips. "I'm not that depressed." She mumbled, defeated.

Joe laughed as he filled some drinks for a table. "Go take these to Jim and the fellas and apologize for being so down then come back here and explain to me why I'm not out there breaking someone's neck for puttin' that look on yer face."

Zaria took the tray with the drinks and went out the the table with a big smile on her face. She made the rounds in the bar with the lone waitress since the day was slow and reassured several people that she was fine. Apparently she was unaware how many people noticed her mood change. Had it really been two weeks since she had met the mysteriously interesting man known as Steve Rogers? They had only spent two hours together, why did it seem like she had broken up with a really good guy? It concerned her that she had gotten so attached to someone she had just met.

Huffing out a heavy sigh she made her way back to the bar and leaned her hips against it; Joe gave her a look. "I met this guy a couple weeks back on my way home from here."

The look on Joe's face at that comment made Zaria speed up her words. "He was really nice, didn't try to do anything at all. In fact he helped me carry my groceries home when the bag ripped. Which is how I met him. Got off late and a grocery store was still open that was just around the corner from here. My bag ripped just before I got home and all my stuff went everywhere and he was there because he had been running and offered to help." She sighed and rubbed her head. "He was so sweet and it was so easy to talk to him. He asked tons of questions and got confused by everyday things we all say. It was so cute. He walked me to the museum because he was concerned about me. It honestly felt like we had known each other forever. I invited him into the museum before we opened to have a tour because I felt like he would actually enjoy what he had there... I guess whatever spell we were under broke and we were just strangers again and he left... I haven't seen him since..." Zaria shrugged and looked away.

Joe stared at her for a long moment making her feel awkward enough that she considered making another round of the bar. "You really liked him didn't you?" He finally asked.

Zaria shrugged again. "I don't believe in love at first sight..." She mumbled.

"I didn't say that girl," Joe answered as he scrutinized her. "Although I would have to argue with you about that, but that's for another time. I said you liked him. I don't remember you ever talking about another person, let alone a guy, like you're talking about this one. And you clearly would never let them affect you as much as this one has."

Joe pushed himself off the back counter and walked over to Zaria. "Go home early Z. Take tomorrow off and work this out then come back on Friday. You're going to work the whole weekend from opening to closing so take your time to get your head on straight and figure this out."

Zaria opened her mouth to argue but the firm set in his stance told her it was a fight she would ultimately lose and may even get herself suspended for longer so she sighed heavily. "Alright," she consented as she moved away from the bar. "I'll see you Friday."

She stomped her way down the frozen sidewalk towards her home. She was angry that she was letting a complete stranger ruin things for her. She didn't know him, he clearly wasn't interested or he would have come back by now. "I'm being so stupid..."

"Yes you are." An unfamiliar voice said from behind.

Zaria groaned. "You have got to be joking..." She muttered as she turned around to face the voice. "If you're here to rob me you have totally picked the wrong day to do that on."

The kid shrugged and held out a switchblade. "Just hand over the purse and there won't be any trouble."

"Just walk away kid before you get hurt." Zaria answered as she stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets.

"I am not a kid!" The guy snapped, his hand around his knife shaking with anger.

"Yeah you are. You're what, sixteen? Shouldn't you be at home sleeping before you go to school or something?"

"Just hand over the purse bitch."

"I think not." Zaria ducked low and snatched the kid's wrist, twisting it and kicking the knife away when it dropped lose. She rotated his arm around his back and shoved his face up against the brick edifice of the building she was next to. "Go home kid." She said as she twisted his arm tighter. "Go home, do your homework and stay off the streets or one day you're going to end up dead."

"Like you?" Another voice said as she felt the tip of a knife brush her cheek.

"This is seriously just not my day..." She growled as she pushed off of the kid and turned to face the new guy.

"I don't like gutting girls but if you don't hand over your purse that's exactly what I'm going to do to you." The new person said as she glared at him. "Just hand over the purse and you can be on your way."

The kid sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve as he picked up his knife and joined the new guy. "I was handling it."

"Clearly." The other one barked. "Look the longer you wait the more likely it is that I'm going to hurt you." He said to Zaria as he noticed she was taking too long.

Suddenly an old plastic trash can lid smacked into the back of the young kids head knocking him to the side as a fist caught the older guy in the jaw twisting his head around and attached to that fist was the GQ model nominee: Steve.

"Steve!" Zaria gasped as her hands came up and bumped into his back as he spun around to face her attackers.

"Are you alright Zaria?" He asked as he spared a glance at her over his shoulder.

"I- I'm fine." She answered. "What are you doing here?"

"I was on a run and I saw these two young men causing some trouble so I thought I would intervene." He turned his attention to the two guys righting themselves. "I believe you two were just leaving."

"Fuck that!" The younger one shouted as he tried to jump Steve from the side.

Steve reacted quickly, blocking the knife hand with his forearm and crossing over with his other fist with a hook to the jaw, knocking the kid on his backside before he quickly turned his attention back to the smarter of the two.

"We can keep doing this or we can all be on our way without any worry." Steve said as he kept his fists up in a boxing stance.

The older of the two would-be muggers took a moment as he considered his options then he raised his hands in defeat, helped his friend up, and left quickly. And just like that, it was over.

Steve lowered his hands slowly, still scanning for threats, as he turned most of his attention to the bewildered girl behind him. "So, uh..." Steve cleared his throat. "I've been meaning to come by and return the jacket but you seem to never be home when I stop by and I just don't want to leave it sitting on the porch for anyone to grab..." His words petered out as he looked at her. "I'm sorry..."

Zaria stared at him for a long moment. She wanted to be angry with him for basically ignoring her for two weeks, she really did, but the look on his face made her want to forgive him. She puffed up her cheeks before letting the air whoosh out. "You're wearing a jacket this time I see."

Steve blinked and looked down at what he was wearing. "Yeah, someone said they got cold by looking at me." He answered with a smile.

Zaria blushed and shook her head before she shrugged. "Yeah I guess I did say that."

"So what are you doing out? I thought bars closed around two, not midnight." Steve asked as he fell into step next to her.

Zaria flushed a dark red, embarrassed that the reason she wasn't at work was actually standing next to her. "I was let out of work early."

"Any particular reason for that?"

"No." She answered quickly, probably a little too quickly as he gave her an odd look. "Slow night so Joe took over the bar and sent me home. I have to work the weekend instead."

Steve nodded as if it all made sense to him. They walked in silence for awhile making Zaria feel awkward to the point where she searched desperately for a topic to discuss.

"So..." She started uncomfortably.

"So..." Steve stated just as awkwardly.

Zaria laughed uncomfortably. "You would think that we would be able to talk since we were able to the first time we met."

Steve smiled slightly. "Yeah I agree."

Zaria sighed then shivered in her coat. She needed new clothing, something warmer than what she owned now, but money was tight and she never had anything left over for clothing. A heavy jacket settled over her shoulders, surprising her out of her thoughts and causing her to look over at Steve.

"I noticed you were cold." He said in an apologetic tone.

"You're not?" She asked as she pulled the front closed around her.

Steve shrugged as he hunched slightly in his long sleeve workout top. "The weather doesn't affect me that much."

"Thank you." Zaria said softly; Steve smiled.

They reached the door to her apartment building far too quickly. Zaria stopped at the door and looked at Steve, unsure of what she should do. Did she invite him in like last time or did she say her goodbye here and risk not seeing him again for another two weeks or longer.

As if sensing her confusion Steve answered instead. "I'll let you go to bed, you're looking pretty tired after that incident with those young men, but I would like to take you up on that offer of a tour of your museum... If it's still open."

Zaria laughed as she shrugged out of Steve's jacket and handed it back to him. "I would like that very much. I work tom- well today and the weekend, after that I don't know my schedule."

"You still leave at four thirty right?"

Zaria nodded. "Yep, have to be there by six."

Steve nodded as he considered something. "Well get some rest." He finally said as if he had come to a conclusion he wouldn't be telling her.

"You as well." Zaria responded as she disappeared into the apartment building still wondering if he was actually going to come to her museum for a tour or not.

"I guess I'll just have to wait and see."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait between Chapters. Got married, took two weeks off to clean house then went back to two and had to play catch up for two weeks. But here it is! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Zaria leaned her hands on the small counter in her bathroom as she leaned her head against the fogged mirror. Sleep had eluded her last night after the incident with a certain would-be GQ model. Not only was he good looking but he could fight as well, which apparently appealed to some secretive feminine side of her. Who knew she enjoyed knowing the guy she liked would kick some ass to defend her? Did she just admit to liking him?

She groaned as she pulled her head away from the mirror. "Shape up, you're going to be late for work. Can't be thinking of that right now." She muttered to her mirrored self. Huffing, she opened her makeup bag and groaned again; no foundation. "I just want a little money to get replacement clothing and makeup is that so much to ask for? I mean I don't have TV, I don't have internet, I hardly ever run the air conditioner or the heater, why can't I just get a break and have a little extra money for some nice things? I'm so tired of my boss bitching that I wear the same thing to work two or three times a week. It's not like I have a choice, if he just paid me more- Jesus!"

During her rant she applied the little makeup she had left, exited the bathroom, grabbed her coat, purse and keys, locked the apartment door and left her building, only to nearly run straight into the chest of one handsome exercise model.

"Steve!" She gasped as she stepped back. "You scared me. What are you doing here?"

Steve smiled his bright, charming smile at her as he turned to let her by. "You said that offer for the tour was still good and you know that I don't like that you walk yourself to work so early in the morning, especially after what happened last night. So I thought I would kill two birds with one stone; so to speak. What's this about someone needing to pay you more?"

Zaria flushed a dark red color as she buttoned her trench coat closed against the wind. "You heard that?"

Steve nodded and looked at her as if he was considering something then decided against it. Instead he shoved his hands into his pockets and followed Zaria to the Subway station. "You going to tell me about it?"

Zaria puffed up her cheeks, clearly embarrassed that he had heard her ranting. "I, uh..." she cleared her throat as she tried to find an easy way of explaining it without having to go into detail. "I haven't bought new stuff for me in a while and I was thinking out loud that maybe if I could somehow get paid more I wouldn't have that problem. Or if I could just pay off some of my bills, that would work too."

"What kind of things do you need?" Steve asked curiously.

Zaria blushed, this wasn't a topic she was completely willing to talk with someone about. Her issues with money were widely known at the bar but telling it to Steve seemed intimate and embarrassing. "Well..." She started as she tried to figure out how to say things without actually saying it. A kid rushed towards them on a skateboard. His earphones were in and he was looking at his phone, not paying attention to what was around him.

Steve looked up and noticed him a moment too late so as he pulled Zaria out of the way the kid crashed into Zaria's side, sending all three of them onto the sidewalk.

"You man watch where you're going!" The kid shouted as he hopped up and tried to find his skate board.

"You should watch where you're going!" Zaria snapped as she stood and tried to brush the grime off of her coat. "You were skateboarding into a crowd of people with your earphones in while looking at your phone. Do you honestly think it's my fault that you ran into me?"

"Chill lady." The kid responded.

Zaria gruffed out a few inaudible words before she stomped her way past the kid with Steve following behind. Out of the crowd and away from the kid she took a good look at her coat and groaned. "Well this would be one of the things I need. I bet he was trying to steal something from me." She said to Steve as she examined the dirt streaks.

"What makes you say that?"

"My pocket's ripped. A lot of people put their phones or wallets in their pockets." She sighed as she massaged her temples. "This would be one of those things I don't have enough money for; since you asked. New coats, new tights," she looked at the long run in the tights she was wearing with a crestfallen face. "New clothing in general... new everything. I haven't purchased anything for myself since before my Babulya was sick."

"Babulya?"

"Grandmother in Russian." Zaria sighed as she continued down the sidewalk, into the subway station and onto the train as it pulled up to the platform. She was silent on the train as she closed her eyes and struggled not to fall asleep standing up.

"Didn't sleep well last night?" Steve asked as she noted her tired appearance.

"Not really." She admitted as she pried open an eye to look at him. "Stress and all that."

Steve nodded his agreement and fell silent for the short subway ride. They exited quickly and made their way to the museum in silence as Zaria had no energy for small talk and Steve seemed to be off in his own world. They approached the well kept tiny museum where Zaria visibly woke herself and hustled up the stone steps to the old oak doors.

"You're not going to bail on me like you did last time are you?" She asked as she turned back to see where Steve was.

Steve stood at the bottom of the steps and stared up at her. The image reminded him of the last time they were at this point, but unlike last time he smiled and climbed the steps quickly and joined her. "Wouldn't dream of it." He answered.

Zaria blushed and turned her attention to the doors, unlocking them and pushing them open for him. "Welcome to the Mark W. Clark World War Two Museum."

Steve stepped into the vast space and took in the substantial collection of wartime memorabilia. His eyes landed on a mannequin wearing the M-43 uniform while holding a M-1 Carbine.

"I think it would look good on you." Zaria said with a smile as she locked the oak doors again; the museum wasn't scheduled to open until later. "I dressed all the mannequins. Even went a little overzealous with the budget I had and found mannequins from different age groups to better portray the age of most of our soldiers that were fighting in the war." She pointed at the gun in it's hands. "That M-1 Carbine he's holding will still shoot too, but obviously George isn't going to allow us to do that."

"George?" Steve asked as he pulled his gaze away from the mannequin in uniform.

"One of the curators and partial owner of the museum." Zaria answered as she moved around the museum. "Apparently him and his sister, Annette, are related to General Clark so they purchased this place when it was down and out and dedicated it to him. Pretty much everything you see in here was donated to this place by them. I guess George was really upset that there wasn't as much mention about Clark as there is about General Patton. He's always ranting that is Patton can have a museum then-"

"So can Mark W. Clark." A new voice finished as a man came around the corner. "You're late again Zaria and you look absolutely disgusting. Do you honestly think I would allow you into my museum looking like that? And you," he indicated Steve, "the museum is closed, there are no tours at this time."

Zaria huffed. "He's with me George and if it wasn't for him I would have been even later, some kid ran into me on the street while I was coming in. I figured you would rather I came in like this then the hours later it would have been if I would have gone home and changed."

"I would have preferred if you hadn't come in at all then." He answered snidely. "And didn't you just wear that outfit two days ago?"

Zaria flushed angrily, embarrassed that her clothing choice was coming into question. "For your information I haven't worn this top in a week so no I did not wear this outfit two days ago."

"But you've worn that skirt and that ugly coat with those horrendous boots."

Zaria blistered. "Well forgive me if I can't afford to buy new clothing seeing as I don't have any money."

George opened his mouth to retort but a female voice cut him off.

"Leave her alone George, she has a point." A female came around the same corner George had entered at and eyed Zaria before looking at George. "You know you could afford to pay her more but chose not to. She is the only person here who knows how to correctly catalogue and date many of the items we've brought in over the years she's been here. I doubt you could find someone better. Hello Zaria."

"Hello Annette." Zaria answered slowly. "This is Steve, he's a friend of mine. I didn't think it would be a problem to bring him in and show him the museum since he seemed to be genuinely interested in what we have here."

Annette turned her attention to Steve and took a long moment to assess him before she smiled coyly. "Hello Steve this is the first time we've ever heard of any friends that Zaria has. It's a pleasure to meet you, I do hope you enjoy our museum." She turned back to Zaria. "Show him around but then get in the back and get back to work. There is a whole collection of buttons that have been brought in that need to be examined and sorted." With that she turned and left, taking George with her.

Steve looked over at Zaria confused and Zaria sighed, shrugging. "This is normal for them." She gestured to the museum proper. "Shall we continue?"

"It's not a very large museum is it?" Steve commented when they had finished the tour.

"Not really." Zaria agreed as she came to a stop to look at him. "George likes to complain that we can't get in the 'big attractions' like the tanks or any of the other armored vehicles. Although, honestly I can't see him spending a large chunk of cash on one of those, even if we did have the room for it."

Steve mused over what she said while scanning the museum when his eyes landed on a female mannequin dressed in the female army uniform standing next to an antique desk. An aspect of utter anguish washed over his face as his eyes took on a faraway look.

Zaria watched his face with some confusion for a moment before she considered saying something. "You don't like Rose?"

"Rose...?" Steve asked as he tore his gaze from the mannequin.

Zaria pointed at the mannequin. "That's Rose, she's special. I found a mannequin that looked like my Babulya although there was no way that she was even old enough, let alone in the right country, to serve in the United States Army but it is her desk so I thought I should put her next to it."

"The desk is your grandmother's?"

"Mm-hmm." Zaria commented as she walked over to it. "The desk is roughly around the right age for the war, it's a 1940s Secretary Desk and I think it's made my Wooton Rotary but I'm not really sure. George didn't want in here but I convinced Annette to let me bring it in. It was just going to gather dust or worse in my place and at least here it can be enjoyed. My Babulya would tell everyone that it was her first 'American purchase with American money'. She was so proud of that desk."

Steve looked over at Zaria to see a sad smile on her face. "You really loved your grandmother didn't you?"

"Yeah..." She sighed as she shook her head. "Come on, I've got one more thing I want to show you."

Zaria led the way to the back of the museum where she did her work, pushing open the door to let him enter first. Leading him over to a long table against the back wall she lifted the glass and indicated to the contents inside. "This is my secret project that I work on in my spare time."

Steve examined the contents only to be stunned; they were of him! There were old articles, cards, newspaper clippings, and photos of 'Captain America'. Shocked didn't even begin to describe how he felt. Had she figured it out that it was him? What was he going to say to get her to think it wasn't? S.H.I.E.L.D. would not appreciate some civilian figuring out his identity.

Zaria laughed. "It's silly I know. So many people tell me that this stuff isn't important but I honestly feel like this guy here was a hero too; in his own way. I'm sure he's just come actor who dressed up in a costume but the people really adored him and he was a major influence, getting people to spend money when they didn't want to spend money; he probably funded a whole battle by himself. I've never found a name for him in all my searches, I guess it just wasn't that important, but I don't want to give up yet." She shot him a glance as she leaned her hip against the table. "You know, he looks a lot like you. Maybe he's a relative."

Steve shot her a surprised look only to have her laugh.

"Don't look so scared. It's not like I think that you're him or anything, that wouldn't be possible now would it?" But the look in her eyes told him that she was thinking something very different and that odd look, that knowing look, set him on edge.

"Anyway," she began as she wiped the tears from her laughing from her eyes. "It's just a silly fascination I have, I'll probably never really know anything else about that man, but it's fun to try." With that she closed the glass and locked it. "Well I probably should get to work. Thank you for coming to the museum."

Steve smiled. "I'm glad you showed me around, I really enjoyed it. I was surprised to find that anyone liked World War II as much as I did."

Zaria smiled in response. "I had a feeling you would really enjoy the museum." She glanced down at her jacket and sighed. "I'd forgotten about this."

"Let me help." Steve took the edges of the coat and helped her out of it before he draped it over his arm. "I'll see if I can't get this cleaned for you before you leave work. When do you leave work?"

Zaria stared at him confused. "You don't have to do that for me."

"But I insist. If had noticed the man sooner you wouldn't be in this predicament. So when do you leave work?"

"I uh..." Zaria looked over at the work she was given for today than at the clock. "I should be done around 8 tonight."

"Then I will be back at 8 with your coat and maybe you wouldn't mind joining me for dinner?"

Zaria blushed and smiled. "I would love to."

Steve smiled as well, a much more brilliant one than the last few smiles she had seen on him today. They had made it to the door where he stopped to look at her for a moment. "Excellent, I will see you then."

Zaria returned to her work room after letting Steve out of the museum and locking up again. She sighed as she splayed her hands across the glass. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." She quoted as she looked down at the photos of the World War II "Captain America". "Isn't that right, Steve?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Are you sure?" A disembodied voice asked.

"Almost positive, that's why I haven't told the boss yet." Another answered.

"Is that her?"

Someone lifted a picture of a girl with shoulder length, wavy brunette hair, light blue/green eyes, and fair skin. "Yeah that's her."

"Well Zaria Barnes..." The first one started as the click of a high power camera could be heard. "What kind of friend have you just made?"

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Zaria laughed as she patted Steve's arm. "I can't remember the last time I went to a movie theater."

Steve smiled as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "Yeah me neither. Did you enjoy the movie?"

Zaria smiled back. "I enjoyed the company." She sighed as she stretched her arms over her head. "You've been coming around a lot." She noted.

"Is that a bad thing?" Steve asked confused.

She shook her head as she huddled into one of the new jackets Steve had convinced her to let him buy for her. "Not at all, I'm just a little confused as to why someone would want to spend so much with me."

Steve pursed his lips as he thought about an answer. "Well, didn't we say this was how you would pay me back for the jackets?"

Zaria huffed and crossed her arms; he knew her too well it seemed. "There is no way I can make **that** up."

"Then you're just going to have to join me on the other excursions I'm considering doing." He smiled playfully.

Zaria blushed as she shot him a sour look. "You're much less reserved now than you were just a day ago."

"I could say the same thing about you." Steve answered innocently.

Zaria grunted as she looked at her old watch.

"Need to be somewhere?"

Zaria shook her head. "I'm just not use to not being at work right now." Sighing she rubbed her cheeks to warm them up. "Honestly, losing so many days makes me concerned about money. But, tomorrow is the weekend and I can get a lot of tips if I make the drinks right so hopefully that will make up for it."

Steve nodded and made a noncommittal noise in response. He didn't seem to like the idea that she worked in a bar; or so that's what Zaria thought.

"You know..." she started as she looked up at him. "You should come in on Monday when we're slow and meet the regulars. I think you'd like a lot of them." Puffing out a steamy breath she cast a sideways glance at Steve to see that his hands were still stuffed into his pockets making her feel suddenly crestfallen. So she continued speaking to take her mind off of it. "Having an entire day off of work is really rare for me."

"Is it?"

"Mm-hmm..." She answered. "Normally if I have one day off from one job I still work that day at the other one. When I have days off at the museum is when I try and get my laundry down and days off at the bar are days I try to get groceries. It works alright I guess... Crap!" As she had been talking she hadn't been paying attention to where she was walking which caused her to step on a frozen puddle on the sidewalk. Her foot went out from under her and she was on her way down when Steve's strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her close.

"Careful." He said as he pulled her to a standing position with her head against his chest. "You don't want to twist an ankle on the ice there."

Zaria flushed. Wrapped in his arms she felt safe for the first time in a very long time. And with her cheek to his chest she felt comfortable; happy even. "I, uh... yeah... Don't want to twist an ankle." She repeated as she lifted her face to look up at him. Suddenly she had the overwhelming need for him to kiss her. She wasn't sure why, but standing there with her face lifted to his, she needed him to kiss her. To feel that spark of life she was sure she would get from that connection with him; the zing that would go all the way to her toes.

Steve looked down at her, his arms still encircling her, holding her, embracing her, and it was like she knew he would do it. He would kiss her, just like she wanted, needed, him too. His head dipped lower, the gap between them closing, as his eyes flickered, uncertain, to her mouth. He stopped, she could feel him hesitate, and yet he was so close that if she just pushed up onto her toes she would reach him, but she wouldn't do it, she wouldn't scare him away if that was really what was happening.

A wind kicked up and her short hair blew across her face breaking her eye contact with him and the spell was broken. He straightened and stepped away from her leaving her confused and disheartened. It was just like before, like the first time they had stood facing each other on those steps of the museum and the evening spell that had made them talk to each other ended and they were just strangers in the daylight.

Zaria blinked against the burning sensation in her eyes as she turned away. The utter loss and defeat she felt when he pulled away from her was overwhelming and she didn't understand it. They had known each other for only a few days. Yes, they had spent those few days in each other's presence for hours on end, but it was still only a few days. The emotions raging inside didn't make sense to her. How could she feel so strongly towards him? She didn't believe in love at first sight.

_I would have to argue that with you. _Joe's words echoed in her mind and some part told her she had known him for much longer than these last few days as images of her "secret" project flashed in her brain. She had known him long before she had met him.

"As if..." She muttered to herself.

"What?" Steve asked.

Zaria flushed as she realized she had forgotten that Steve was still standing there. "Nothing. Was there something else you would like to do now that the movie is over?"

Steve looked at his watch. "I think I should get you home so you can have a full night's sleep before going into the museum in the morning."

Zaria nodded half-heartedly as she led the way back to her apartment.

They walked in silence and parted way nearly as silently before she turned in for the long weekend of work ahead.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

"Hey, gloomy. I need another round of beer for table three." Molly's voice broke through Zaria's funk.

She shook her head, slapping her cheeks and grunted. "Sorry Mol." She said as she poured the pints quickly and slid the glasses across the bar top to the waitress.

"If you keep that up you won't get very many tips." She commented as she picked the glasses up and put them on her tray. She wandered off only to be replaced by another waitress.

"Hey Amber, what do you need?" Zaria asked as she cleaned the bar top.

"I was thinking it might be time for a little light show." Amber winked her false eyelashes. "Light up the bar and do some stunts of yours; Joe won't mind."

Zaria pursed her lips. "Nah, last time I did that Harvey came out of the kitchen and had a conniption."

"Bob's in the kitchen for another half an hour so you're safe."

"You know I don't like getting up on the bar by myself. Besides," Zaria nodded to the back hallway. "I hear Harvey's voice already.

Amber pouted her hot pink lips. "Fine, fine. After this round I'll get the other girls on the bar and we'll split our tips from that with you."

Zaria laughed as she filled a glass and sent it running down the bar top to the man who had his hand raised. "I don't think Jenna and Susan would agree to that."

"Well Jenna and Susan wouldn't have a job if you didn't stick up for them so they'll just have to deal." With that Amber spun around, flicking her salon colored blonde ponytail behind her as she sashayed to the tables.

"She's a smart girl." One of the regulars commented. "And real sweet."

"Yeah," Zaria answered as she mixed up the woman's favorite cocktail. "Not sure what she's doing here though."

"I'd say the same about you." The older woman said as she took the drink.

Zaria huffed. "You know why I'm here Ellen. It's not like I had much of a choice."

"You're a smart girl you could have gone anywhere."

"I may be smart but I don't have a college education." Zaria nearly snapped as she tried to distract herself by handing out beers to the crowd that had just rushed the end of the bar.

"No, but I wouldn't really say that was your fault. I blame that shitstain known as Jimmy." Ellen said as she started coughing. "Ah, these smoker's lungs of mine aren't what they used to be."

Zaria stilled at the name of her former boyfriend. "We don't talk about him..." She answered coldly.

"I know, I know I'm sorry." Ellen said as she patted the girl's arm. "But one of these days I want to come into this bar and not see that pretty face of yours. I want to ask Joe where you've been and hear that you've moved on to greener pastures like you deserve."

Zaria gave Ellen a sour look before she finished up the drinks for the newcomers and handed out several drinks to the waitresses. Afterwards she huffed and scrubbed at the bar top to clean up any beer residue.

"Good you have the bar clean!" Amber chirped as she pranced up to the bar with the other girls.

Zaria blinked, confused. "Huh?"

"Bar dancing, duh!" She responded as she hopped onto the bar and began pulling the other girls up. "Alright ladies and gentlemen! It's time for the bar dance!" She shouted across the room.

Susan and Jenna gave Zaria a bitter look before the music changed to one of the dances they had all learned and the crowd started cheering.

The girls made good money when they did their bar dance and they had several of them they knew so the regulars weren't bored by the same ones. The "Weekenders" as they all liked to call the crowd that only came on Friday and Saturday, whistled and hollered away in their drunken excitement; and they probably threw away a lot more money at the girls than the regulars did.

With the song done and the girls off the bar Amber bounced around the the back where she pulled out a wad of bills. As the youngest of all the waitresses, and the one who applied the most, and yet most tastefully done, make up of all of them she usually ended up with the largest of the hauls. Smiling brightly she counted her tip up and split it evenly, sliding one chunk to Zaria.

"Tada!" She sung.

"Amber, I can't take that much from you." Zaria answered with shock.

"Relax, this is just from the bar dance. I won't try and split my entire tip with you, I know you'll totally disagree to that. Besides, you know as well as I do that Jenna and Susan are going to short change you so I figured this will make up for that."

Zaria shook her head and hugged the young girl. "You're crazy." She muttered before she pushed the girl out from behind the bar. "Go make your rounds and earn some more tip."

"Just remember if it wasn't for you none of us would be where we are today; Jenna and Susan included. Whether you want to admit it or not you've helped us all out, so let us help you out when you need it."

Zaria shook her head and began working through the rush after the dance; the girls had recommended one of the specialties for the day so of course many of the guys were willing to try it. As she slid another drink down the bar top out of the corner of her eye she saw a face she had hoped to never see again; Jimmy was back in town.

"Well hello Zippo." He drawled as he sauntered up to a vacant bar stool.

"Get lost Jimmy before you get thrown out of here." Zaria snapped as she moved further away from his seat.

"I'll go in a minute I just wanted to give you some friendly advice."

"I don't want to hear it." She gritted out. Several of the regulars at the bar had noticed the change in her demeanor and were attempting to move around the bar unnoticed by the unwelcomed guest.

"Oh I think you do. You see someone important has taken interest in you and I've heard that if you don't step off you're going to get in trouble."

"You're little gang doesn't scare me anymore Jimmy. None of your little friends are going to be able to hurt me."

"See that's where you're wrong. I'm not with them anymore. I'm with someone much more important. And I think you know exactly who that someone is."

Glass shattered and Zaria realized she had been gripping a pint glass in one hand that had now shattered, cutting open her palm. "He doesn't exist." She muttered darkly.

Jimmy stared at her bleeding hand knowingly, all too knowingly, and gave her a dark smile. "Oh I think you know better than that. Just remember, if you don't take a step back into your little hole where no one noticed you you'll be just fine, but if not..."

He left it hanging as he smirked once more just before a heavy hand slammed down on his shoulder.

"It's time you leave buddy." Someone said as they, and several others, escorted Jimmy out of the building.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The weekend went by quickly as Zaria tried to forget about the ominous words that Jimmy had left her with. She had wrapped up her hand and quickly cleaned up the glass before anyone could ask what had happened. The bandage had made it more difficult to pour beer, but those who had noticed the confrontation had poured out their drunken hearts to "protect" her.

Two a.m. Monday morning had Zaria flopping heavily onto her couch with a long groan as she sunk into the old, ratty seat cushions. Although she worked hard what Jimmy had said was still with her. In her down times she found herself wondering if he could be right, if it were actually true. She didn't think it was possible until she had found out the truth.

"Could it really be..." She started as she leaned back against the armrest, but stopped and shook her head. She wasn't going to think about it. She wasn't doing anything wrong, she wasn't showing off or anything so there was nothing for her to worry about.

With a heavy sigh she flipped open the old fashioned pocket watch her grandmother gave her. "At least I don't work at the museum today." She mumbled as she closed the watch's lid, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

The buzzer for the building's front door jarred Zaria from her slumber and startled her to the point where she fell off the couch.

"Ow..." She groaned as she sat up carefully and rubbed her eyes. "Dear god what time is it?"

The buzzer echoed again through the small apartment as she grumbled incoherently, got up, and stumbled her way to the intercom.

"Yes?" She mumbled into the speaker.

"Zaria?" An unknown female voice answered back. "Zaria Barnes?"

"That's me." Zaria answered.

"My name's Maria, I'm a friend of Steve Rogers. Can I come up?"

Zaria blinked at the had friends? Well, it would make sense that a good looking guy like him would have friends but she kind hadn't really considered it with his weird hours and how much time they had spent together. What confused her the most was why this friend of Steve's would be over at her apartment asking to come inside.

"Is there a reason why?"

"I just wanted to meet the person he's always talking about."

"He's always talking about me...?" Zaria asked to no one in general. She stared uncertainly at the intercom. Should she trust this person that couldn't even see? Believe that they really are Steve's friend? Her father would tell her yes, but look where that got him. Her grandmother would be pragmatic about it; they know she's here, it's rude to send them away at this point. So, as she let out a resigned sigh, she pressed the button to unlock the door to the apartment building. The long hike up the stairs for her visitor gave Zaria time to try and make herself presentable. A quick comb through her hair, some scrubbing of what little makeup she had on to get rid of the smudges, and a fast brushing of her teeth made her feel more awake and ready to greet someone.

A knock on the door let her know her visitor had arrived so she checked herself in the mirror of the bathroom then hurried out to her front door, unlocked all of the locks on the door and swung it open to reveal a petite blonde.

"Hi! I'm Maria." She said brightly with a lilt to her voice that was vaguely familiar. "So nice to finally meet you. Can I come in?"

Zaria started and realized she was scrutinizing the girl. She smiled weakly and stepped aside. "Of course, come in."

Maria stepped in and looked around. "Nice place, very quaint."

"Thanks." Zaria answered slowly as she closed the door behind her. "So, was there something you wanted to talk about?"

Maria swiveled around with a bright smile plastered on her face. "Not really. I just wanted to meet the person Steve's always talking about. Do you have anything to drink?"

Zaria pursed her lips and stared at the girl. Something was off, the lilt in her voice was all too familiar and even parts of her features reminded her of something. "Sure..." She said slowly as she moved into the kitchen. "I just have water, if that's alright with you."

"That's just lovely." Maria called back.

Zaria pulled her water pitcher out of the refrigerator and filled a glass for the mysteriously familiar Maria before she put the pitcher away and closed the door to the refrigerator. "Here you are." She said as pleasantly as she could while setting the glass on the counter.

"Perfect thank you!" Maria chimed as she put something in her inner coat pocket and came over to the counter.

"What's that?"

"What's what?"

"What you just put into your pocket."

"Oh this?" Maria said as she pulled a tube out of the inner pocket. "It's lipstick." she opened the tube to reveal bright pink lipstick. "I was going to reapply it but I realized you don't have a mirror in your living room."

"No... It's in the bathroom down the hall." Zaria answered slowly. She was sure that the item she had seen had been square, but she wasn't sure enough to press the issue.

"That's just wonderful." Maria smiled as she picked up the glass and took a drink. "I'll put it on again just before I leave so I don't put too much lipstick on your cute glass. Where did you get this anyway?"

"From my grandmother, they were a gift."

"How lovely." Maria looked around the small apartment as if she were scrutinizing everything.

"Is there something you're looking for?" Zaria asked coolly.

"No, I just wanted to see if Steve really did describe your little place in detail; which he did. It's quite lovely. The kitchen looks almost brand new compared to the age of the apartment."

"Didn't Steve tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Zaria narrowed her eyes. "It was redone."

"Oh that's right, I must have forgotten. How nice of your landlord to do that." Maria smiled.

"You know Maria, it was nice having you here but I think it's time for you to leave." Zaria stated smoothly as she came to the conclusion that this woman was no friend of Steve's.

"What? Why? I just got here." Maria asked sounding confused.

"I have to get ready for work." Zaria answered dryly.

Maria set the glass down and looked over at her. "But I wanted to learn more about you, can't I just stay while you get ready?"

"I would rather you not. I would be too distracted to get ready in time for work if you stayed." Zaria made her way to the door and held it open. "It was so nice of you to drop by."

Maria's overly pleasant appearance slipped for a moment as her eyes hardened. "I see." She started frostily. "Well then I guess I must leave."

"Yes, I guess you do."

Maria walked past her with a flippant attitude. "It was so nice to meet you." Her lilt was heavier this time, more pronounced and Zaria finally figured it out.

Russian. Maria was Russian. There was no doubt in Zaria's mind that the person who came into her house today was in fact Russian. Now that she realized that it was clear why her facial features were familiar; they were similar to her grandmother's.

"And same to you." Zaria said as she shut the door on her unwelcomed guest, nearly catching Maria's coat in the door. She listened intently to other woman's heels clacking across the dimpled wood floor and down the stairs. When she could no longer hear the shoes, she moved to the window in the kitchen, parted them just slightly, and waited.

Maria's blonde head was noticeable when it came around the corner of her building and walked up to a parked black vehicle. Leaning on the vehicle was a largely muscular bald man with very obvious Russian tattoos. They shared words, it was clear the man was unhappy she was back so quickly and Maria made gestures with her hand before pointing up to the building; Zaria moved away from the window.

All doubts about what Jimmy had told her just a few days ago vanished as she realized not only was it true, not only had they been looking for her, but they had found her and proved just how easy it was to get to her. This wasn't like how it was with Jimmy's old gang where they made threats at gunpoint, no this was cool and calculated. This was professional, and if she wasn't smart about it she would get caught unsuspecting.

Zaria's eyes narrowed as her hands balled into tight fists. In the morning she would find the money to change all the locks on her door. If she was really smart though she would move, and tonight, but as she looked around the room at all the stuff she had, all of the memories her grandmother had given her she realized she wouldn't, couldn't move away. So, she pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she decided she would just have to be prepare when they finally came for her.

"I won't go without a fight..." She muttered darkly as she stared the the pink lipstick smudge on the glass on the counter.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

The late afternoon sun was sinking quickly behind the buildings as Zaria pulled on her heavy leather jacket and matching boots as she got ready for a slow night at the bar. She had gotten a message from her landlord that Joe had called to say she would be working alone since the bar had been virtually empty at the time of the call. Clean up would be tough but she'd done it before and she had slept more than she thought she had before she was interrupted this morning so she was good for another long day at the bar and museum.

She looked around the apartment quickly before grabbing her purse and keys then opened the door and left. The smells of the city accosted her as soon as she hit the sidewalk, but they weren't as pungent as they would be in summer so she took in the smell of asphalt, grime, burnt rubber and sweat that seemed to permeate the city no matter where she was. With a sigh she quickly made her way to the bar for a long, slow night.

"You're late." Joe said without looking up from some paperwork.

"I'm sorry I- Wait no I'm not!" Zaria snapped as she came into his office to store her purse and jacket.

Joe smiled and shook his head. "You always apologize before figuring out whether or not you need to."

"Well you're always yelling at me whether you need to or not." Zaria answered as she stuck her tongue out.

Joe laughed heartily as he sat his paperwork down. "Thanks for working tonight, I know you won't get much tips but stuff's gotta be done."

"I know." Zaria answered as she signed in on the worksheet and went off to cover the bar.

Joe was right, the bar was slow. So slow in fact that most of the usuals weren't even in. Bob wasn't even in the kitchen anymore, he had come out and sat on one of the stools as he nursed a diet coke. His big arms covered in tattoos from his biker days, which had come after his army days; or was it airforce, she could never remember.

"Want another one Bob?" Zaria asked as she pulled over her own stool that was behind the bar and perched on it.

"Naw.." Bob muttered as he stared sucked down half the glass in one go. "Just wishin' it were rum in there too."

Zaria smirked. "Well, I don't think Joe would want you drinking on the job, although I'm not sure how much of "a job" it is tonight. Did the world end or something?"

Bob chuckled. "Naw, It's just too damn cold out. People are all bundled up at home."

"You're probably right." Zaria slid off the stool to pour a glass and slide it down to the regular at the other end of the bar before she sat back down on the stool next to Bob.

"If there were more people here I'd tell ya to get up on that bar and do that dancing stuff." Bob said as he finished his glass.

"I don't do the Bar Dancing." Zaria answered taking the glass and putting it in the sink.

"Not those silly dances the other girls do but that, whaddya-call-it, gymnastics."

Zaria smirked. "I haven't done that in a while and the bar is a lot wider than a balance beam."

"That sure never stopped you before."

"No, what stopped me was the fact that Howard complained to Joe about it saying 'this isn't a circus-"

" 'So we shouldn't be acting like one.' I remember, doesn't mean I agree with that Yankee."

Zaria laughed. "You're living with the Yankees, Bob. They have a baseball team and everything."

Bob made a disgruntled noise at that before he finished off his diet coke and leaned over the bar to put his glass in the little sink back behind it. A cold wind blustered through the bar front making the few customers grumble about it. The door shut just as quickly cutting up the cold and causing the heater to start up again.

"Welcome, have a -" Zaria stopped as she noticed who had come into the bar; it was Steve. She smirked as she crossed her arms. "Well, I didn't expect to see you at the bar GQ."

Bob straightened and looked over at the newcomer who was slowly making his way to a vacant stool. "So you're the guy that's put that look on our little Z, eh? GQ? What kind of name is that?" He asked gruffly, as he gave off his old biker vibe.

Steve stared at the older man confused, unsure how to respond.

Zaria snickered and finally came to his rescue. "I'm not sure what "look" you're talking about Bob, but his name is actually Steve and Joe wouldn't like you scaring away the customers. Steve, this is Bob, he's weekday evening chef here."

Steve held out a hand and, after a moment, Bob snatched it up and shook it hard. "You look like an army man. Are you an army man, Steve?"

"Oh for the love of- Bob don't harass him." Zaria butted in before Steve could answer.

"What is going on out here?" Joe's voice bellowed from the hallway. "I don't need anyone causing a racket up here. The regulars don't appreciate it. Who are you?" He asked as he came through the door and notice Steve sitting next to Bob at the bar.

Zaria groaned and bumped her head against the bar's counter. "Relax Joe," she muttered as she rocked her head back and forth on the bar. "This is my friend Steve and Bob was just trying to harass him. Speaking of which, shouldn't you back back in the kitchen Bob?"

Bob huffed and he got himself up from his stool and made way back to the kitchen. "Gotta make sure it doesn't burn down since I was away."

Zaria shook her head with a smile as she moved away from Steve for a moment to fill a pitcher to take to one of the lone tables with customers. As she came back she heard Joe talking to Steve.

"So, you're the boy that Z's told me about, eh? You also the one that ignored her for two weeks?"

"Joe!" Zaria snapped as she felt her cheeks burning. "Leave him alone."

Joe ignored her and continued on ahead. "You're also that boy that bought her those jackets right? Z never lets anyone buy things for her so you did a good job convincing her of letting someone get her some new clothing. A lot of the regulars, including Bob and I, have tried to get her to let us help her but she's too stubborn."

Steve looked embarrassed by Jim's forwardness. "Thanks. I pretty much ruined her trench coat so I replaced it and got her a few more in the process."

Joe chuckled. "Good lad. You take good care of our Z." Jim suddenly sobered up and looked him square in the eyes as he clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder. "But if you hurt her you'll be answering to a lotta people. Do you understand?"

Steve looked bewildered and shot Zaria a pleading look, who huffed and shook her head.

"Enough Joe, I'm not a little girl I can handle myself. And you're scaring a customer, you always complain when someone else does it so I'm going to complain since you're doing it."

Joe laughed heartily as patted Steve on the shoulder. "You've got a lot to put up with." He said before he walked away.

Zaria made a face at Joe's retreating back. "Sorry about Bob and Joe."

"It's alright," Steve answered as he looked at Zaria thoughtfully. "They seem to think of you as family."

"Yeah, I was a pretty scrawny kid when I came here, but it's not like I haven't been here since I was ten or something, I've only been here for three years."

"Well it's nice to have people who are worried about you."

"Yeah, well they can be worried elsewhere." Zaria huffed.

Steve laughed softly. He took a moment to survey the whole bar, taking in it's pathetically few patrons, TV spouting out garbled sports and the small stage that was empty right now except for an old ratty jukebox off to one side.

"It's not the best of places, but the people are nice." Zaria said as she noticed him looking around the bar.

"It seems that way." Steve answered. "When do you get off?"

Zaria looked over at the clock on the wall. "Around one or two depending on when Joe decides to close up today."

"Well then I guess I better get a drink and some food while I wait. Anything you'd suggest?"

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Zaria puffed out a cold breath as she huddled into her leather jacket. It was unseasonably cold tonight, probably the warnings of a storm front coming in somewhere but she wasn't sure.

"Cold?" Steve asked as he walked next to her.

"I'll be fine." Zaria answered. "The leather's worn done in some places I guess, but it's not too bad."

Steve regarded her for a moment before he shrugged. "If you say so."

"Well I do." Zaria said as she stuck her tongue out; Steve chuckled.

They stopped in front of her apartment build in silence as they looked at each other. Steve appeared to want to say something but was having trouble coming up with the words. Zaria pursed her lips as she waited for Steve to say whatever it was he wanted to say and looked around the area. He seemed to be at war with himself with whatever words he want to get out; maybe he couldn't or didn't know if he even should. Finally it appeared he had given up on whatever it was he wanted to say so she sighed lightly and smiled.

"Well thank you for coming into the bar. I think the regulars liked you. I know Joe did."

"He did? That's nice to know."

Yeah... Well... Goodnight." Zaria leaned forward and brushed her lips softly against Steve's before she turned and disappeared into her building without giving him a chance to respond.

Steve stood there, stunned, for a long moment. He debated with himself about either pushing the call button for her apartment to go after her or just leaving. After a long internal debate he finally decided he would let her be for the night, as she had work in the morning, or so that's how he convinced himself to leave, and walked away.

Zaria took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh before she trudged up the stairs to her apartment. Opening the locks and pushing the door open she quickly shucked her jacket and boots, letting her sore feet rest on the cold tile floor of her apartment as she let her head fall back against the door with a thump.

"That was stupid..." She muttered to the empty apartment as she smacked her head into the door. "Really, really, stupid."

Groaning at herself she peeled herself off the door and stripped her top and pants off, leaving her in a tank top and her underwear, as she made her way to the bathroom. Flicking on the light, she rested her palms on the sink bowl and looked into the mirror.

"It can't work, I know it can't work so why..." She asked her reflection.

"Why indeed." A male voice answered as a needle bit into her skin.

Zaria's eyes widened as she looked caught his face in the mirror. "You!" She cried but all thought was quickly lost as the sting of the liquid in the syringe made the world go dark.

Steve made his way up the street near his apartment when a blonde woman stepped out into his path.

"Steve? Steve Rogers?" She asked, a lilt to her voice making her sound foreign.

"Who's asking?"

"I have something for you. Something from a friend." She held out a clean envelope with his name printed on it.

Steve took it cautiously and opened it. Inside was a picture of a familiar brunette laying in an awkward position in what he could only assume was the trunk of a car with a note.

_You've been warned._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Jane and Pepper huddled together in the corner of the concrete room they had been thrown into several hours ago. There was no heat in the bare room and neither women were dressed for an extended time in the cold of a New York winter. They had been contemplating their predicament for the last half hour, and what they could do about it. It was clear to both of them they had been taken because of their relationship with one of the members of the Avengers team but not the purpose of their kidnap.

While they tried to figure out what they were going to do the door to their prison opened, flooding the room with light from the hallway. For that fraction of a second they could see the long hallway their room was at the end of along with far more armed guards than they thought would be necessary for kidnappees, then two people stepped into the doorway, the light silhouetting them, before one of the figures was nearly catapulted into the room and the door slamming shut behind them. The new person's shoulder slammed into the hard concrete slab where they issued a muffled groan and laid where they had fallen.

Both Pepper and Jane sat there, confused, before they realized that the new person was an extremely underdressed girl who was still tied up.

"Well that's just unfair." Pepper snapped as she hurried over to the girl. As she examined their unknown companion, hands snatched her wrist painfully and held it as defiant pale green/blue eyes stared up at her from a mass of tangled brown hair.

Pepper held still, trying not to struggle against the painful grip on her arm as Jane slowly made her way over as well.

"Hey, look we're not going to hurt you." Jane said as she knelt down next to Pepper. "I'm Jane, and this is Pepper. If you can let go of her wrist we'll get this tape off of you."

Slowly the new girl removed her fingers from Pepper's wrist and Pepper had to resist the urge to pull her wrist back quickly and rub it.

"Better," Jane said as she moved in front of the stranger. "Now it's going to hurt when I take the tape off your face, okay? Pepper, why don't you see if you can make some noise and get us some blankets and possible some clothing."

Pepper went to the door as Jane pulled the tape off carefully, picking the hair away from the sticky surface. The tape around the newcomer's wrist came away in a long strip, leaving angry red marks on the skin, but she was finally free.

"Thanks..." The third kidnappee said as she pushed back her hair. "Zaria."

"What?" Jane asked confused.

"My name, it's Zaria."

"Za-ry-ah?" Jane said pronouncing each syllable separately. "Pretty name."

"Uh... Thanks..." Zaria muttered as she stood up and looked around. "So, do you know why we're all here?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing. Here, put these on and you probably don't want to ask where they came from and if someone was already wearing them." Pepper said as she handed a pair of old gray sweats with a matching sweatshirt; Zaria took them without question and put them on quickly. "They didn't give me any socks or shoes for you but I guess the sweats are long enough to cover your feet. Jane and I know why we're here but not why you're here. Do you?"

Zaria shot Pepper a quick glance. _So they don't know about me?_ She thought as she pulled the drawstring tight on the pants. "Mistaken identity?" She said with a shrug.

"If that's the case then who were you mistaken for?" Pepper questioned, but not at Zaria, at Jane.

Jane looked bemused and scrutinized Zaria as if she were trying to picture who she might be. "I can't think of anyone you look like that they would want to take honestly."

Zaria shrugged. "Honestly I don't even know why you're here so I can't give any input." Although she had a pretty good guess as to why she was here, which would be the same reason the girls were here, if a little different.

Jane looked at Pepper she looked like she was considering things before she finally sighed and turned to Zaria. "Under normal circumstances I'm sure I'd look familiar so it's no big deal telling you who I am. I'm Pepper Potts."

"Tony Stark's girlfriend." Zaria finished as she eyed Pepper. She turned her attention to Jane as she mulled over who she must be close to. "You assume that you're dating or close to one of the other members of the Avengers team."

"I am," Jane admitted. "Are you?"

Zaria blinked. "I'm pretty sure they would have told you I was dating them if I was. I don't even know any of their identities, outside from Tony Stark as he kind of gave that one away on a whim."

Pepper made a face at that. "Yeah, he does that."

"So you don't know any one of them?" Jane questioned.

"If I did I don't know it." Zaria answered, which she knew was a lie.

Jane and Pepper moved off to one side to discuss the possibilities of Zaria dating one of the remaining Avengers and not knowing it while the girl in question studied the walls of their concrete box.

The door flew open to a bright light and several armed men, one of which was holding a camera. Zaria froze, instantly going to the defensive as she assessed the men, the weaponry, and the possible collateral damage. She liked it better if she didn't know the possible collateral damage, even better if there wasn't any, but she wasn't sure what the possibility would actually be since they were all necessary hostages. Before she had time to really consider her options she made an attempt at attacking.

She ducked low, using both hands to fit the first man's knee cap, twisting it viciously and putting him out of commission, and then she came up with the flat of her palm and caught another one in the jaw, snapping his head back and dazing him. She aimed for a third but a fist caught her in the jaw, whiplashing her head to one side and knocking her to the ground. Pain racked her head, blurring her vision as she felt blood leak into her mouth. Shaking her head she attempted to get back up but a boot dug into her spine, she yelped before she could stop herself.

"Shut up!" The man with the boot in her back snapped before he smashed her head with the butt of his gun.

The pain in her jaw paled to the pain that rocked her head. Stunned, Zaria groaned quietly and put her head down on the cold concrete. Blood made her hair sticky as it trickled out of the gash in her hairline.

"Stop!" One of the other girls cried causing Zaria's head pound. "You don't have to brutalize her; she didn't do any real harm."

The man ignored her. "I hope you got that all." He muttered so another of the armed men.

That's when Zaria noticed the small camera, its red light on and blinking. They were being recorded. She gritted her teeth in anger, she didn't like her weakness displayed for everyone to see.

"Yeah, I was told not to shut it off for anything."

"Well then I hope they enjoyed that little show. Your girlfriend has a temper on her but as you can see she's been quelled. If you don't do what you were told to do earlier we're going to get creative with them while you watch." The Boot Man said to the camera. He reached down and grabbed Zaria roughly by her hair and yanked her to her feet; she grunted in pain but kept her lips mostly sealed. "And I think we'll start with this one."

He put Zaria's bloody face in full view for the camera and she realized that they weren't just being recorded it was being streamed live now she was pissed, and for her, anger gave her the edge she needed.

"Jane, Pepper," she said quietly. "Close your eyes."

"What does that have to do with anything? They can see your faces." Boot Man snarled at her.

"I know the camera can still see us, but I don't want them to see what I'm going to do to you." Zaria answered. She swirled her tongue in her mouth, moving as much blood as she could to the front before she spit it in the man's face that was holding her.

Boot Man wheeled, releasing her as the blood and saliva hit him in his face, and Zaria took that fraction of a second to assess the situation. They wouldn't draw their guns for fear of killing the girls and they were all wearing army grade knives, so, before the men could react, she grappled the man who had beaten her, picking him up and throwing him, back first, onto the hard concrete floor while pulling his knife from its hilt and thrusting it up into his ribs in one smooth motion.

"You seem to forget that Kevlar doesn't stop a knife." She whispered to the downed man as she shoved the knife as deep as she could get it, piercing his heart. The room was stunned and she used that moment to wrench the knife free, darting across to the room to attack and kill the remaining men. As she whipped the knife across the neck of the man holding the camera it clattered loudly on the floor where he dropped it.

A whimpering sound echoed from the corner where Jane and Pepper had been huddled in when the group had first come in. Zaria looked over to see the girls staring in horror at her. She looked down, noticing the blood on her borrowed clothing and her hands slick with it making holding the knife difficult.

"I told you to close your eyes." She murmured as she turned away from the girls and shirked the sweats, using them to towel off her hands then wrapped the knife in them. She bent over the bodies she had dragged out of the way, examining the Kevlar vests and picking the two with the least amount of blood on them. She stripped them off and snagged a satellite phone before walking over to the two girls.

"Put these on." She commanded.

Jane paled, looking green and sick while Pepper appeared to be trying not to gag.

"Why...?" Pepper asked. She seemed to be more under control.

"Because they will stop bullets," Zaria answered tersely. She shook them. "Put. Them. On."

Pepper gingerly took one of the vests and examined it, she pales when her fingers came away with blood. "But..."

"Do you want to be shot?" Zaria interjected.

Pepper shook her head quickly and put it on. It was big for her, and Zaria adjusted the straps as best she could before basically forcing the other one on Jane.

"Can either of you shoot?" Zaria asked, neither of the girls answered. Sighing she sat the phone down and returned to looting the corpses, grabbing to military grade submachine guns.

"Here," she said as she held one out to Pepper who took it carefully as if it would bite her. "This is an MP5A2. It's a submachine gun, an automatic. Right there is the safety switch. Leave it on unless you see someone that you don't know. Turn it once and it will be a repeater, shooting three rounds at a time. Turn it again and it will shoot the entire clip if you let it. All you need to do is point, pull the trigger, and hold on. Got it?"

Pepper nodded quickly. Zaria sighed as she squatted down and placed several spare clips on the floor with the extra gun before picking up the satellite phone again.

"Use this to call Tony. If he has as much tech as he claims he does he should be able to track the call to the exact location of the bunker we're in and maybe even to what room you're in. This will get through the concrete and steel, your cell phone won't; if you even have your cell phone. Call Tony, sit down and make yourself as small of a target as you can, and shoot anything that comes through that door that you don't recognize. And when Jane isn't feeling so shocked have her take the other gun and help if she can. Got it?"

"Got it." Pepper said, her voice sounding firmer than it had a moment ago.

Zaria moved back over to the bodies and pilfered the last of the weapons, which were a knife and a Beretta handgun. She moved back over to the camera, swearing silently that the damn thing was still running. "Although I cannot hear your responses I am sure you would like me to leave the camera running so that you can keep an eye on the girls." She moved the camera to a corner of the room where it could see the girls and the door. "That's the best I can do so you can see both Jane and Pepper and the doorway."

With that she assessed the room then headed to the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Pepper asked as she jumped up.

"To make a hole for your boyfriend." Zaria answered before she left the room, knife in hand.

Pepper stared at her for a long time, stunned. Who was this stranger? Was she friend or enemy? She couldn't be that bad if she was helping them, right?

"Pepper...?" Jane started shaking Pepper from her musing.

Pepper sighed and dialed Tony's number.

"We're starting the trace now." Tony answered without a hello. "We'll be there soon, I promise."

Pepper sunk to the floor at the sound of his voice, looking at the bloody drag marks that led to the pile of dead bodies in one corner then to the door that Zaria had disappeared through. "I know." She whispered. "Do you know who she is?"

"No, but Fury is looking her up so we'll know soon enough."

"She helped us." Pepper said as she could hear the implied threat in Tony's voice.

"She could be the enemy."

"She's just a girl."

"Who murdered five grown men before they could react."

"If she wanted to hurt us she could have done it when she first arrived."

"She might want you to think she's on your side. For all we know she could be working for the people who kidnapped you."

"I don't think she would have killed those men if that was the case." Pepper said defiantly.

"If she wanted to gain your trust I'm sure she would do anything."

Pepper sighed, she wouldn't win this argument. A heavy thump came from the hallway outside along with several gunshots. Pepper stared out the door, waiting for someone to come in, but no one did. Distantly she heard an alarm sound then it was an all-out war with gunfire.

"She's going to get herself killed." Pepper said to no one.

"Not our problem." Tony grunted.

But somehow, Pepper thought it would be their fault.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Zaria had always known that her adrenaline made her faster, stronger, better than the average human, so killing those men during that time when they had been stunned by what she did was easy, but what surprised her was that even as she felt her adrenaline cooling in her system she still felt faster than the guards she was fighting.

Vengeance did that, or at least that's what she was telling herself. She noticed a group of people and, feeling jacked up on the idea that she was permanently better than the killers for hire, she grabbed a bar overhead, propelling her body as she had done for many years in gymnastics. When she felt she had enough speed she release the bar and flipped through the air, landing in the middle of the group. They were too shocked to react as she pulled the Beretta and shot them all.

She felt invincible.

One of the men wasn't dead yet so she reached down and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close to her face.

"Where is he?" She snapped. "Tell me where your leader is!"

"You're going to die bitch." He coughed as he pressed a button on his suit setting off an alarm through the whole building.

Zaria swore violently as she put a round through his head and snagged one of the automatics. Men began to file out from rooms down the branches from the hall she was in. Quickly she bent down and looted the corpses before her. Snagging a vest for herself she took a bag and loaded it with as many extra clips for her gun as she could comfortably carry.

"This will be fun." She muttered as the first group of men noticed her. Then it was war.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Pepper wasn't sure how long she had sat there listening to the sounds of guns and sirens when a loud crackle was heard and a male's voice broke out over the sounds outside.

"Don't kill her damn it! I need her alive! She's useless to me dead! Capture her!"

"Tony, did you hear that?" Pepper whispered into the phone.

"Yeah," Tony said with a sigh.

"They're going to hurt her. She's just a child Tony."

"She's not a child Pepper, she's Twenty Two."

"She's still a child in my book. She's barely over eighteen. Wait, how did you know how old she was?"

Tony made a noise. "The Cap finally admitted to knowing her; gave us her name. Trust me, she's not a kid. She's had a long history on the wrong side of the law until pretty recently."

Pepper paused at that. "Did he know that about her?"

"No..." Tony finally said. "He was pretty shocked by that."

"I still think we should give her the benefit of the doubt." Jane said, finally speaking up. "She's risked her own life for strangers. She didn't want us to see her killing those people. I think it really upset her."

Pepper couldn't agree more.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Zaria was bleeding. She was only vaguely aware of it, and she wasn't really sure where it was coming from. Her left arm was useless, it had been in extreme amounts of pain earlier but she didn't feel it anymore. She was also pretty sure that was a bad thing but couldn't summon up enough emotion to care. She had once been trained to be this way, lack of emotions or pain responses. She had hoped she had forgotten, but when it came right down to it, it was like riding a bike; she had never really forgotten how to do it at all.

She leaned against a wall, breathing heavily, as she remembered the man who had trained her. He had claimed he was part of Jimmy's gang, but he was a killer, bred through and through. She knew he wasn't from Jimmy's gang because no one else knew how to fight like him and he never took the time to train anyone else but her. Because "she was special", or that's what he always told her.

Oh how she had wanted to forget it all and just be able to play the hostage, sitting there quietly as her, Jane and Pepper waited to be rescued, but part of her knew she could never do that, and when she felt that knife hit the resistance of that man's skin and slide through as if it were nothing, she knew she had never truly forgotten how to be a killer.

"If only they would just kill me." She groaned as she pushed herself off the wall, more men were coming in to try and capture her like the voice had wanted. "At least then I wouldn't have to answer for what I'm doing later."

They swarmed in on her and she raised the gun, pulling the trigger only to get the sad sound of an empty cartridge. She groaned as she dropped the gun and grabbed a knife and readied herself to be captured, again.

They didn't get close enough for her to hit them with her knife, but instead two barbs flew at her from the end of a police issued Taser, digging deeply and painfully into her skin before the electric current seized all her muscles up. She cried out involuntarily as her body fell to the ground, knife sliding away from her. They had rendered her completely defenseless.

"I don't understand why we have to keep her alive." The man holding the Taser grumbled.

"Boss's orders." Another responded as he came over to her. "Keep your finger on that button. I don't need her trying to kill me while I tie her up."

The first man squeezed the trigger causing Zaria to convulse on the floor, seething with hatred as the men laughed.

She was bound quickly and efficiently as a bag went over her head and she was carried off down some hallway that she couldn't see to a room she had no idea about to see a man she only wanted to kill slowly and painfully.

Zaria felt the sting of the cold metal chair she was unceremoniously dumped in before she could see it. The fabric bag over her head cut out all lines of sight after they closed it off at the bottom. She also felt the presence of the man she knew she had been brought to see as soon as he walked into the room she was kept it.

"Well she's more or less alive, I see." He said. "You could have at least removed the Taser barbs and the bag when you brought her in here."

"We were concerned she would try to run again."

"In the state she's in? Really? Get rid of them all, now." He snapped angrily.

They hastily removed the barbs, causing more pain than necessary, but she bit her tongue to keep from making noise, then the bag was removed and the blind speared into her brain giving her an instant headache.

"Get lost." The boss said.

"But -" Someone started.

"I said get lost!" He barked angrily. "Go wait for our new intruders or something; I don't want you in here!"

The men left quickly at the orders of their boss. In the silence that followed Zaria squinted at the bright light pointed at her chair as she tried to see the man who had issued the orders.

"So you're the one that made the mess of my men." He said as he stepped into the light. It shadowed him and haloed him at the same time; she hated it. "They were trained soldiers."

"They sucked." She grunted as she tested the restraints on her wrists.

"Or you're just that good." He surmised as he lowered the light that was still blinding here. He stepped aside, letting the light full illuminate him. It was almost as if he wanted to see what he looked like.

He was tall, not as tall as Steve, he seemed a hair shy of six feet, or maybe just on it though it was hard to tell as she was sitting down. He was lean, not skinny, he was certainly muscular, but it wasn't as broad as Steve's; who seemed to be her only real comparison, or at least the one that kept popping up. His dark brown hair was wavy but tamed into a neat style and his blue eyes, visible through the black eye mask he has on, were as cold as ice. Clad in dark pants, a skin tight long sleeve shirt, a Kevlar vest, and weaponry he all but screamed authority. This was a man one didn't mess with if they knew what was good for them and she was about to go poking at him with a stick.

"I'm assuming you're trying to scare me." Zaria said as she twisted her wrists back and forth, loosening the restraints slowly. She needed him talking long enough for her to get loose.

"Far from it. I'd like you to join us." He answered, his arms crossing over his chest, feet apart. An aggressive stance. He was testing her, pushing to see if she would give ground, if she would stand down; she knew this game.

She raised her chin, set her jaw square; giving as good as she got in the state that she was in. "Why would I do that? You kidnapped me, used me as bait for who knows what reason, tried to kill me, then captured me again just to bring me into your presence. Why not just do that from the beginning?"

"I had to test you. See if you were really who I thought you were."

"And who do you think I am?"

"Exactly what your blood makes you."

Zaria stilled and looked at him again, harder this time, not just the assessing glance at his persona, at the person under it. The realization she came to stole her breath and steeled her heart. She knew she would meet him, she knew she wouldn't escape forever, but she hadn't thought he would come for her so quickly. She wasn't ready as she wanted to be, but as the blood in her body ran cold with hatred she knew she had just been given the one she had wanted since she found out the truth of it all. A chance at revenge.

"My blood does not make me a monster like you." She seethed.

The man laughed. "Is that what you think I am? A monster? Tell me, what makes you think that." He smirked, his hands on his hips, just above his guns.

"I know what you are. I know what you've done, and for who and what. I know who you you're looking for but can't find so you're stuck with me." Zaria's vision blurred as all the emotions, the hatred, anger, betrayal, bubbled to the front. "I probably should have started this whole conversation with "hi, it's so nice to meet you, I'm Zaria Barnes", although you already knew that because you know everything about me. Isn't that right... Grandfather...?"

The smirk on the man's face faded as he studied her with extreme interest. "I'm not old enough to be your grandfather. They must have hit you harder than I thought."

Zaria laughed, it was a harsh sound. "Not unless you're the Winter Soldier; which, of course, you are. I've seen the paperwork. Did you really think my grandmother, Dima, defected to the states without something important? Your picture is all over those documents. It wasn't hard to put it all together when I saw the only photo of you that my grandmother had. You know the one, that grainy colored one when you first found out she was pregnant with my dad, your son. It really all made sense after that. What I want to know is why."

"Why what?"

"Why meet her? Why get her pregnant? Why have a child at all? Why her? Was she special too? Why didn't you marry her? Why not tell her the truth? Why not come looking for her? Did you know that she never married? She raised her son and her granddaughter all alone. Did you know she loved you until she died? You knew she died right? Of cancer. It was really slow, really painful. Did you know that she hated me at the end because I look just like you?" Tears stung Zaria's eyes as she laid it all out there, even the harsh truth about her grandmother hating her; something she had never told anyone else. "It's all your fault you know. That she had to live the way she did, that my dad died thinking he could be some hero because he was "better" than the average person. That I'm this freak of nature."

The Winter Soldier just looked at her, his eyes dead and cold. "If you would join me no one would ever call you a freak."

Zaria was teeming with the need to hurt him, to make him pay for everything. She had dreamt about it when she had finally learned the truth. She had been so sure he would come looking for anyone alive that was related to him and she had been right. The restraints on her wrists were almost to the breaking point, just a little more time and she would be free to do exactly what she wanted. "All I ever wanted was to be normal. I work hard to make ends meet, to pay the bills that were left behind. I met a great guy who I really like."

The Winter Soldier's eyes hardened. "You know nothing about that man."

"Oh I know plenty about him. You see, I have this ability to remember anything and everything I come across, my "super power" thanks to you. I know about him just like I know about you. But unlike you, he's actually nice. Of course he doesn't know what I know, but that's okay. He doesn't need to. And, after tonight he won't ever have to find out the truth."

"What makes you think he won't find out?"

"Because Bucky... One of us is going to die." The restraints broke from Zaria's wrists and she leapt from the chair to attack.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

Tony, Steve, Clint, and Natasha made their through the bunker, following the signal from the satellite phone. There weren't as many guards as they had expected there to be, and they finally realized why as they stumbled upon the corpses.

"She did this by herself?" Clint asked as he surveyed the piles of bodies. It appeared that many of them had been dragged to one side or the other of the hallway.

"They wanted her alive. Or that's what the little speaker-man said." Tony said as he scanned the area. "The signal is coming from further down the hall."

Steve was silent as he looked over all the death done by one person. He was familiar with death as he fought in the World War, but this much death done by one person, one female person. He thought about Zaria, how she seemed so innocent, and yet had been able to kill all these men without batting an eye at it. Maybe she really was working for the enemy. Maybe she was supposed to get close to him, get his defenses down before striking. But then why the note with the picture of her in a trunk? Was that just to throw him off his game?

"Come on Cap, stop daydreaming." Tony said from further down the hallway. "You can get even with little miss not so innocent after we find Pepper."

Steve shook himself; he wasn't here to think about Zaria, he was here to find Pepper and Jane. He moved down the hall to catch up to the rest of the team. As he passed an offshoot something caught his attention. Stopping, he turned to look down the hall, trying to figure out what had caught his attention when light flickered as if a body had passed in front of it. For a moment he wondered what it was. Was it Zaria? Was it one of the men that were part of this kidnapping group? Had they moved Pepper and Jane to throw them off the trail?

Steve turned to call after the group but a noise stopped him. A moan of pain hit his ears from the room with the light. It was feminine; it could have been any of the girls they were here for, so, without much hesitation, Steve ran down the hall and smashed his way through the door. The scene before him stunned him. Zaria leaned heavily against one of the tables in the room wielding a knife that was probably as long as her forearm. Blood coated nearly every inch of her body, her left arm hung limp at her side. She was staring at him, stunned at his appearance in the room.

"Steve..." She whispered. She swallowed, the hand holding the knife trembled.

So, she knew who he was. It hurt him, thinking she had been lying to him the whole time. It was a brutal feeling.

"Steve!" She cried, her voice hoarse, as she lunged towards, using the table as leverage to give her forward momentum.

She was going to attack him, or that's what he thought until he realized there had been another body in the room. One he had missed because he had been so stunned by Zaria's appearance. Pivoting he lifted his shield and blocked the strike of a blade wielded by an unknown male attacker. He used the shield to push the man back and readied himself for another attack when Zaria jumped in front of him.

"Leave him out of this!" She cried as she took up a defensive stance.

"Well, well, well... Captain America, or should I say Steve Rogers, very nice of you to join us. I wondered when you would come looking for the girl." The unknown man taunted as he ignored Zaria's protest.

"How do you know my name?" Steve questioned. Had Zaria told him? She had said his name when he burst in.

"Oh I know all of your names. It wasn't hard to find out the rest of the team, but you, Steve, were a little more difficult. It was only when you came around Zaria that we finally figured it out."

Steve was stunned, he looked to Zaria to see if she would deny it, but she didn't say anything, just pinched her lips in a thin line as blood trickled down over her lips from a cut under her eye.

The other man laughed. "I'm sure you're thinking she's been in on this, but I'll be honest, she wasn't. I had her followed because I wanted her in on it and you were just an unsuspecting victim, isn't that right my little bunny."

"Go to hell." Zaria spat. "Get out of here Steve. Go help your team and don't look back."

Before he could respond she launched herself at the other man much faster than Steve expected with how much blood she must have lost. Metal clashed against metal as their knives hit. Zaria swung out with her foot to the side of the man's head but he was faster, catching her foot and propelling her backwards.

"You really won't join me? We could be great together. I could make it so you're better than you already are."

"I would rather die first."

"Suit yourself." He ducked forward, bringing his knife up to slip under her ribs and up to her heart, just like she had down to the first assailant.

A shield smashed into his wrist before the knife could puncture any skin. Both Zaria and the soldier turned to see that Steve had not actually left.

He caught his shield again and slid it back onto his arm as he stared at the man. "I can't let you do that. I can't let you hurt her anymore. If you need to fight someone you will have to fight me."

"That is exactly what I would like to do." The Soldier said as he turned to face Steve. They moved to their unique fighting stances, each of them sizing the other up. The Soldier rotated Steve away from the door as he circled around.

In the silence Zaria could almost feel the tension pulsating off of the two men who faced each other. She was so enthralled by the fight that brewed just at the surface that she didn't notice how much closer the Soldier had gotten to her.

"But, I think it will have to wait." The Soldier scoffed. "Now, Captain, you're going to have to make a choice. Me or the girl?"

"What?" Steve questioned.

"What?" Zaria echoed. Suddenly pain blossomed just under her ribs and a heavy hand held her shoulder tightly. Astonished she looked down to see a small knife was stuck into her stomach.

"You were right my little Bunny." The Soldier hissed in her ear. "One of us was going to die tonight." With that he shoved the knife in deeper before he pulled it out and disappeared through the door.

Zaria stood there, stunned as warm blood seeped through the wound. Numbly she put her working hand to the gash to stem the blood flow. Her knees gave out but instead of crashing to the ground warm arms caught her and lowered her gently.

"Steve..." She gasped but she couldn't get more out as she felt her lung filling with blood. It was a fatal wound without immediate response.

Steve looked torn. The enemy was escaping and it was his duty to go after him but he couldn't make himself leave her. It was obvious even to him that she was dying and he couldn't tear himself away from her.

"Get... him..." Zaria choked out.

"I can't let you die. It would be my fault." He answered.

"Cap!" Tony's voice echoed from the hallways.

"Here!" He answered. He looked down at Zaria and after a moment's hesitation he lifted her gingerly from the floor and carried her out to the others.

"Jesus." It was Tony, or so she thought but she couldn't be certain.

"We need to get her to the helecarrier as soon as possible." Steve commanded, "She's dying."

There was silence and a crackle of radio as a voice she wasn't familiar with called in for an evac then a redhead moved into Zaria's line of sight with a look of contempt.

"You're not allowed to die Zaria Barnes. You still have questions to answer."

If only it were that simple.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"When do you expect her to wake?" An impatient male voice broke through Zaria's subconscious.

"When she wakes." A female answered.

"You've said that before. I want an exact time she is going to wake up. She has questions that she has to answer."

"That's the answer you're going to get because I don't know. Look, you're lucky she even alive in the first place. If it weren't for the fact that she's basically a medical mystery she would have died before she even arrived here. Her body was already trying to reknit itself by the time she got here, Bruce and I were pretty much only here to make sure it did that correctly."

"Care to explain why her body was doing that?"

"Well..." the female's voice started but petered out as if she didn't know where to start.

"It appears that she has something similar to what Steve has in his system; although her's is so mild that I doubt she even knew it was there." A new male voice answered.

"You mean she has Super Soldier DNA?" The gruffer male questioned.

"A variant of it yes."

"So you're telling me that Steve had a kid?"

"What? No, no. What she has in her isn't what Steve has in him."

"But there was only one Super Soldier ever successfully made."

"That you know of..." Zaria croaked as she opened her eyes slowly. Bright white light stabbed into her brain, making her hiss in pain and shut her eyes again.

"Well now." The female said as the lights turned down letting Zaria open her eyes slowly to adjust as the bed moved up to a sitting position. Her eyes took their time focusing but when they did she noticed three people in her room all staring at her with different expressions. The one closest to her was a female, tanned skin, honey colored hair and eyes that looked like the color of Spanish moss, a color somewhere between gray and green; she smiled.

"Welcome back to the living Ms. Barnes. My name is Samantha Davenport. I've been the doctor looking after you with Bruce Banner." She indicated a slightly mousy looking man. He had a messy mop of brown hair that appeared to have some sprinkling of gray in it, medium toned brown eyes. He was nearly the complete opposite of his female counterpart. Where she wore a crisp cream colored blouse with a burgundy sweater he wore a slightly unkempt wore faded button down shirt that was either a blue or a purple but Zaria couldn't be sure and a threadbare, wrinkled brown blazer that looked like he had slept in it a few days. And where Samantha wore a sleek A-line black skirt he work worn brown slacks; they were an interesting pair of doctors.

Behind them, scowling at her was a tall imposing black man clad in a black shirt, black pants, black combat boots and a black leather jacket. He had an eye patch over his left eye and a goatee that helped instead of hindered his 'I'm going to kill you and you won't know it' look he had going on.

Samantha noticed where Zaria was looking and glanced over her shoulder. "Ah yes, that's Nicky Fury. He runs the show here, but don't worry, he always looks like that, he's actually pretty nice."

"Maybe to you..." Zaria murmured quietly as she basically had a staring contest with Nick Fury.

Samantha sighed as she pulled out a clipboard. "Director Fury, my patient has just woken up and needs to go through some tests to make sure everything is okay with her. You are welcome to stay as it is your ship, but if you plan on staying you will refrain from antagonizing my patient as you're doing so now. I would, however, prefer that you were not in here as you are a distraction and are in the way. Bruce, I also give you the same choice to either stay or to go as she is also your patient, but if your emotions are going to get in the way of taking care of her I advise that you leave with Director Fury." She went to the door to the room and held it open, indicating that she would prefer them to leave even if she had just given them the choice.

"I still have questions for her." Nick Fury barked.

"And they will have to wait until after I am certain that she is stable and can handle the intensity of your questioning. Is that clear?" She was clearing not leaving it up for debate.

After a moment of debate about whether he wanted to throw his authority around or not, Nick fury left the room, finally breaking eye contact with Zaria as he turned and exited the open door; she watched his form walk past the opaque windows just to be sure he was leaving.

Bruce hesitated for a moment as he looked indecisive. "I'm not a medical doctor like you are Sam; I think it would be better if I leave."

Samantha nodded to Bruce. "She can answer your medical questions later. I'm sure they will coincide with Fury's interrogation of her."

Bruce agreed then left the room through the still open door, which Samantha shut and locked behind him.

"Well, wasn't that exciting?" She said as she pulled up a stool and perched on it. "I'm going to ask you several basic questions that I would like you to answer truthfully, okay?"

When Zaria didn't respond Samantha looked up to see if she was listening. She took a moment to gauge Zaria's attentiveness then shifted her weight as she settled more into her seat to begin questioning.

"Please state your full name."

"Zaria Bunny Barnes." Zaria answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Your date of birth."

"September 13th nineteen ninety."

"Your father's full name."

"Luka Viktor Barnes."

"Your mother's."

Zaria hesitated. "Ashley."

"Ashley...?" Samantha prompted.

"Hell if I know. She ditched me when I was one and I haven't seen her since. My father never talked about her and I never cared enough to ask. If she didn't want me then why would I want to know about her?" Zaria snapped, pain was starting to throb in her side but instead of saying anything she just gritted her teeth and kept her mouth shut.

Samantha looked at Zaria placidly before she went back to her clipboard. "Alright, just a few more questions. Do you remember what happened to you?"

"I was in a fight, I lost."

"Anything more specific?"

"I got stabbed, right here." She indicated the spot where it happened, which caused more pain.

Samantha noticed the strained lines on Zaria's face from fighting the pain. She sat down her clipboard and went to one of the moving medicine carts. "I'm going to give you something for the pain. Now, I'm not going to give you enough to completely get rid of it, just to dull it down because Director Fury wants to talk to you still. I'm against this I hope you know, so the moment it starts hurting too much I want you to tell me so I can kick them out." She turned to Zaria with a smile and a need in hand. She stuck the needle into one of the machines hooked up to Zaria before she put it back on the rolling cart and picked up her clipboard. She slipped an x-ray from the back of the clipboard and held it up to the light, examining it.

"Good news, there doesn't appear to be any memory loss or brain damage. You have been unconscious for some time so I am going to suggest physical therapy to rehabilitate your body."

"Like I have the money for that or this for that matter. Where am I anyway? How much are you charging me for this set up?"

"Oh, we're not charging you anything." Samantha smiled. "And I'll see about physical therapy here on the carrier instead. How are you feeling now?"

Zaria mulled over the question for a moment and she thought about her body. "Heavy," she said as she thought about it. "Weak, sore, some pain here and there, but I guess whatever you gave me has kicked in."

Samantha nodded as she took notes. She smoothed her bangs from her face in a gesture that seemed more muscle memory than the need to move them. "You were pretty damaged when you came in here. I'm going to suggest another scan to see how things are mending." She looked over as if expecting someone else to be standing next to her listening to her. She sighed when she realized no one was there.

"I forget I'm not in the trauma ward at my hospital. Which, in this case, is a good thing." She walked over to a machine and pushed it to the bed. "This isn't going to hurt and you're not going to have to undress or anything. I'm just going to lay the bed back down and run this par over you so the machine can give me a scan of most of your body. Maybe later after the "interview" I can get you into the other machine for a more accurate scan, but I don't want to move you yet as I'm sure someone will stop me in the hall to try and talk to you."

The bed laid flat and the arm of the machine Samantha was running swung out and over Zaria. Slowly she moved it down Zaria's body, starting at her head and working its way down to her toes before it moved back up to the top again and shut off. Samantha moved the bed back into a sitting position and took a pad from the machine to glance over.

"Well your bones are healing nicely I won't need to put you in a cast for any of them. Possibly a sling for your left arm, but that won't be too long either. Your ribs will take longer to heal, but I'm unsure of how long as your body is healing faster than the average human." She pursed her lips as she looked over the scan again. "I would definitely like to get a full body scan done but it will have to wait. Are you feeling up to talk to the Director?"

"Do I have a choice?"

The look that Samantha gave Zaria almost made her want to fidget under it. "You do not have to do anything you do not want to do. I am your doctor and if you tell me that you do not think you can handle any questions right now then come hell or high water I will keep their sorry asses out of this room."

Zaria was stunned; this woman would stand up to her boss just to make sure Zaria was comfortable first? It surprised her more than she thought it would, it also made some part of her relax; this was someone she could trust to look after her even if she didn't know the woman very well.

"I might as well get it over with." Zaria said finally as she tried to make herself feel more comfortable. "I would prefer to take a shower, or put on real clothing and brush my hair and teeth first."

Samantha smiled. "Well I can't offer you a shower as those are down the hall as well, but let me fill up a bowl for you so that you can use a sponge to wipe yourself down with. Just a second." Samantha went to the door and opened it, sticking her head out to see who was around. "You! Agent! Yes, you. You will go and find me some clothing for my patient to wear. Don't give me that look. You will do as I say or there will be a great many things done to you that you will not enjoy. Make sure they're womens clothing and something not huge and baggy damn it!"

She pulled her head back in and closed the door shut with a responding snap before she made her way over to the sink to fill a bowl with water and snatching a sponge. "This probably isn't going to be a whole lot of fun since I'm going to have to help you with this, but trust me; this isn't as bad as it could be."

Zaria eyed the bowl of water as she realized what Samantha meant and scowled. "I've never had to rely on someone my entire life and here I am about to get a sponge bath by a stranger."

"Who happens to be your doctor." Samantha answered with a smile.

Zaria puffed out a breath as she considered her options. "It's not like I have much of a choice if I want to get clean, huh?"

"I would rather you let me help you than you try it on your own and get injured again." Samantha noted honestly.

"You're right I guess."

Samantha nodded, clearly happy with the answer, and went in search of towels in the drawers by the sink. She grabbed a stack of them and was laying several of them out on the floor when the door handle rattled.

"Sam?" A slightly familiar male voice questioned at the door as the person knocked; Samantha perked up instantly. "Sam why is the door locked and why are you asking for women's clothing when you know I can go get you some from home."

"Clint!" Samantha nearly cried as she all but ran to the door; she looked like a love struck schoolgirl. She gathered herself, taking a deep breath and schooling her features before she unlocked the door and slipped outside, clicking the door shut behind her. "I know you could get me clothing from home but I'm not asking for them for me; they're for my patient."

"Is she awake?" The man known as Clint asked. Zaria wondered what he looked like; she preferred to put names with faces and not just voices.

"Yes, she's awake."

"Doesn't Fury know? He wanted to talk to her the moment she woke up."

Samantha harrumphed. "He will talk to her when I say it is okay to talk to her."

"Have you told him this?'

There was a pause. "In much nicer words..."

Clint chuckled. "I guess he can't really argue with a doctor."

"No, he can't." There was a pause and some rustling outside the door before Zaria heard Samantha start talking again. "If you want to wait here I will tell you when she's ready. She's requested we do the interview sooner rather than later and since she appears to be cognitive I have agreed to okay the meeting."

"Why not right this second."

"Do you really need me to answer that?"

Clint paused. "Oh... Ah... Yeah I'll wait, just let me know when she's ready and I will get the Director."

The door opened and Samantha slipped in with a stack of folded clothing, she shut the door and locked it again when she was through. "Alright, let's make you feel better before you talk to the Director."

With Samantha's help Zaria perched on the stool that now sat on top of the towels that the doctor had put on the floor to catch any errant water. The water was cold and it was Zaria felt awkward to have another person bathe her, but she could hardly hold herself upright on the stool let alone bathe herself. A few times she caught Samantha pausing where there was a scar from a time past or staring at the large tattoo on her side. It was of a large ornate cross with vines interweaving it, the top of which ended just under her armpit. There were three crossbeams, two parallel ones towards the top, a short one that just grazed her breast and a longer one that ended just under her breast, and a short diagonal one towards the bottom of the cross. Next to the cross on each side was a long bar rising diagonally from the bottom of the cross and ending just under the end of the longest bar. The left diagonal bar ended in a triangle and the right one ended in a square.

"You can ask." Zaria finally said after the fourth or fifth time seeing Samantha eye the tattoo as discreetly as she could.

"It's a cross, I can see that much but I don't really understand that third mark on the bottom of it or the two things on the side." Samantha said as she pursed her lips.

"It's the Russian Orthodox cross. The top short crossbeam is where the plate inscribed INRI sat, the longer one is where Christ's arms were to rest and the short diagonal one is supposed to be the footrest. The bar with the triangle is supposed to be the Holy Lance, you know the one that the guards stabbed Jesus with, and the other is supposed to be the cane with the wine soaked sponge."

"Are you religious?"

"Hah, no. I would like to say that it was done for some really important reason and has some deeper meaning to me other than its religious purpose, but it doesn't. I was stupid, young, and wanting to impress people. I think part of me wanted to embrace my babulya's heritage but she hated it."

Samantha was silent after that and Zaria didn't offer up any more information on the subject. Finally the doctor stepped back and turned to snag one of the remaining towels she had set on the bed.

"That's as good as I can get you without making you feel more uncomfortable than you already are. So let's dry you off and put you in the clothing." Samantha was quick with the towel, drying Zaria efficiently before helping the hospitalized girl into a pair of track pants and a tank top; Zaria suddenly felt lucky her chest was small and she could get away without a bra.

"Are you sure you want to talk to them today? I can tell them you need another day before you're ready." Samantha questioned as she helped Zaria back into the bed.

"It's not going to be any different if I do it now or at a later date. In fact it might be worse to put it off."

Samantha pursed her lips; it seemed to be something she did a lot, before she shook her head and went to the door. Popping it open she stuck her head out. "You can go tell Fury he can talk to my patient, but that if I see her under any duress it will stop, whether or not he is finished and satisfied, got it?"

"Good luck telling him that." Client said as the shadowed version of himself disappeared down the hall.

Five minutes later found Nick Fury standing in Zaria's hospital room, legs apart, arms crossed and all but glaring at her. Samantha was perched on the metal stool on the opposite side of the bed from Fury with her clipboard in hand as she monitored Zaria's vital signs on a machine next to her. In the silence that followed the only sounds were the quiet hum of the machines and the scratching of Samantha's pencil.

"As I told Agent Barton, this interview will last until I begin to notice any signs of duress in my patient. Once that happens the interview will stop and there will be no further questions even if you are not satisfied with the answers. Is that clear Director Fury?" Samantha looked up from her clipboard, her face was set in stone and the look in her eyes made it clear that even though Fury's title was higher than he's she was clearly the one in charge in this situation.

Nick Fury turned his icy stare at her. It was clear that he wanted to argue, but whatever he was in Samantha's eyes made him not push the subject. He didn't so much as make a noise, but it almost appeared as if he sighed as he turned his attention back to the girl sitting in the bed. Moments of silence passed again.

"I'm surprised that it's only you in here for this interrogation, Director." Zaria stated when she had had enough of the staring contest.

"They can see and hear you just fine from where they are."

Samantha looked palled as Zaria feverishly tried to stamp out the blush that was creeping up her neck. Had they seen her bathing?

"Surely you're not telling me there has been a camera on this **whole** time." Samantha snapped. "My patient has the right to privacy Director Fury."

"I am not such a callous man Doctor Davenport; I had the camera feed shut off when there was anything that could be considered indecent exposure. It has been turned back on for this questioning."

"Interrogation." Zaria corrected. "You might as well call it what it really is."

Fury turned his attention back to Zaria with a glare. "If you were being interrogated you would be in a different room right now."

"An interrogation is still an interrogation no matter the location it is in." Zaria answered coolly. "Just say what you're here to say, I clearly have nothing else to hide since I'm sure you've seen my file, whether or not it's a sealed record."

"You're right, I have seen your file along with most people on my team, but that's not where I want to start. There are things that are not in that file that I am very curious about."

"Like...?"

"I'll start with the more pressing incident. Were you in on the kidnapping?"

Zaria gave him an exacerbated look, she knew it was going there but still felt like the question was pointless. "If I was in on that do you honestly think I would have gotten myself kidnapped, thrown into a trunk, beaten to hell, and nearly killed just for two women? What good would have there been for me to have kidnapped both women then kill men that I was supposedly working with just to give those same women a means of escape?"

"Trust." nick Fury answered. "A way in under the radar. We would never have suspected you were a mole if you were just some girl who helped rescue two of our people."

"With my kind of history? Don't bullshit me Director, the moment I was taken was the moment you were suspicious of me. Did you possibly consider that that was the purpose of this whole thing? To make me the target of your suspicions so that others can continue their work. Knowing who Pepper Potts is and how to get to her was child's play. Tony Stark painted a giant bull's-eye on him when he first came out as Iron Man. The girl Jane on the other hand was a harder find. They know who your people are and how to get at them. **I** still don't even know who Jane is supposed to be close to, but clearly they do. This whole kidnapping thing was a message."

"And what's that message supposed to say?"

"Oh don't play dumb Director; you're not very good at it." Zaria glared at him. "It says they know who you are and how to hurt you. I bet you had no idea what happened when Pepper and Jane were taken. You probably didn't know they were even gone until you received a letter with their picture."

Nick's eyes narrowed and Zaria knew she had said too much. "You seem to know a lot about these people for not being a part of it."

Zaria's hands bunched into fists on the blankets as she struggled to keep her composure. "No. I have never been part of their group. But it's not hard to find out when you know who they are."

"About that. You and their leader seemed pretty friendly from Captain America's account. You can tell me all you want that you weren't part of their group but you can't tell me that you didn't at least know the leader."

Zaria's teeth gritted as her body vibrated with barely controlled anger. She knew the questions would lead them to exactly where they were now, but she hadn't wanted to talk about. Hadn't wanted to reveal the truth. All she wanted was to pretend she was just a normal person and live her life unremarkably, but here she was about to tell all there was to know about secrets she only wanted to bury.

Samantha noticed the signs on the machine had changed as she looked at Zaria before she set her clipboard down and stood up to face the Director. "I'm going to have to stop the interview now Director. I do not need my patient relapsing."

"No," Zaria hissed. "This isn't going to change whether he asks me this now or if he asks me this later."

Samantha looked like she wanted to argue but instead closed her mouth and sat back down. It was clear she didn't approve but she wasn't going to stop her.

Zaria let out a breath slowly as she stared at the covers on her bed. "You asked me if I knew them, knew him precisely. I don't, not personally anyway, but it's hard not to know a person when they're related to you."

Fury scowled. "You don't have any siblings or cousins and your father passed some time ago. Don't try and lie to me."

"I'm not." Zaria lifted her gaze and caught Fury's glare, holding it with her own. "He's my grandfather."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The stunned silence that followed was expected and it gave Zaria a moment to collect herself and loosen the muscles she had tightened with the stress of answering the question. There was no more hiding, the truth was out there now and she couldn't retract it.

"Your grandfather..." Fury said finally.

"You're not dumb; you heard what I said correctly." Zaria nearly snapped she was baiting him which wasn't the best idea.

Fury glared. "From the account he was pretty young, roughly the same age as you. So tell me how that makes him your grandfather."

"How is it that Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, appear to be in his mid-twenties and has been that age for the last seventy years?" The look Fury gave her was as close to stunned as he would ever allow himself so she continued. "Look, I'm not stupid. I can put two and two together. I have a project I had been working on for months at the museum when I met Steve. I didn't see it at first, something about him seemed so familiar and yet I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought maybe he was some model or sports player or something I had probably seen in passing once.

"I have this... gift? ability? "superpower"? Call it what you want, but I can remember perfectly every single thing I come across. My bubulya didn't defect to the States empty handed. She came over with papers from the Russian government, really important stuff, and when I was little I saw those papers. I was young, I didn't understand them but as I did some digging after the first time I saw Steve, trying to see if I could figure out why he was so familiar I found those documents. I thought, no way, it wasn't possible. There was no way that that project could have even worked, but the Russian project was based on one that had originally been in work in the US. So when Steve came to the museum with me and I showed him the project I worked on I noticed something. He looked exactly the same as the man in the pictures. How is that possible?

"It isn't unless the project done in the US was a success. And 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, _however improbable_, must be the truth'. So I found him. Steve Rogers was the original Super Soldier. The one the Russian equivalent was based off of. That man, that thing is, like it or not, my grandfather.

"You asked me if I was in on the whole thing, I guess I should have answered, yes, I am or was anyway. I knew about him, I found out he was looking for my family. He wanted my dad actually but he died all because of this stupid "super soldier" stuff; thinking he was better than anyone else. I left, disappeared when I knew he was looking. I knew when he found me; they basically rubbed it in my face just before they took me. I don't know what he wanted with your people, or if they have anything to do with this, knowing him there's some secretive plan that has to do with the Avengers, it just happened that it worked well with finding me I guess." She hadn't realized how much she was going to tell but once the figurative floodgates opened everything came tumbling out. Her mouth closed and she looked down and away from Fury suddenly feeling very small and vulnerable. She wanted to stand, to pace and get angry, but instead she was confined to a bed and the bitter truth. She'd stopped being angry somewhere in her rant, her body relaxed and her hands unfurled from their fists.

"It looked more like you ran right to him after he "kidnapped" you." Nick commented after a long moment of silence.

Samantha looked astonished at the accusation and appeared to be on the verge of saying something, but Zaria answered.

"Yeah, it looks that way, huh? Like I pretty much did exactly what I said I hadn't done." She ran a hand through her hair as she sighed.

"If that wasn't what it was then what was it?"

"A death wish?" She shrugged. "I wanted him to pay for it all. For every single thing that's happened because of his DNA, but I pretty much knew I was walking to my death. At that time I kind of hoped I would have died. Would have made all this a-hell-of-a-lot easier to deal with, don't you think?"

The look she received from Fury for that comment was none too friendly.

"Look, if you're done here can I just go home? I've missed I don't know how many days of work and I have hospital bills to pay. I probably even have to look for new jobs thanks to all this."

"If he's really your grandfather and you honestly want nothing to do with him how about you tell me his name."

Zaria glared at him. "Steve can answer that question."

"I'm not asking Steve I'm asking you."

She huffed and released her hands, they had clenched into fists again without her really noticing. "Last I checked to date he's been going by The Winter Soldier, but you all should recognize him by the name James Buchanan Barnes or Bucky Barnes."

Fury didn't seem fazed by the name, but somewhere Steve was probably feeling like he was hit by a train. She wondered how he was taking it, if he hated her for lying to him, not that she had actually lied about anything he had never asked questions like these, she just had never told him the truth. Inwardly she felt crushed, her heart ached and everything felt cold, all she wanted was a normal relationship with a guy who happened to be extremely attractive and also the nicest person she had met in a long time; outwardly she probably looked as cold as she felt.

"Are we done now?" She asked finally.

"For now." Nick consented as he turned and left the room.

Silence descended, only broken by the sounds of the machines. Zaria nearly jumped when Samantha stood up from her stool and dragged the rolling cart to one side of the room.

"What are you doing?" Zaria questioned as the honey blonde clambered up onto the cart after putting the brakes on. Then she noticed a small spot up in the top corner. It was so obscure that she couldn't tell what it was but clearly Samantha knew what it was.

"Jackasses." Samantha grumbled to the spot as she reached up and yanked, pulling the object free. It was a camera, extremely small and high tech. The Doctor had just yanked the camera out of the wall, somebody was sure to come into the room any minute but Zaria was so relieved that she just didn't care anymore.

Her breath caught, her eyes began to burn, and she fisted the blankets as she tried to regain composure. She hadn't had a true cry since her father died, even then she hadn't honestly let herself feel the pain of his death, she had just shut it all in. It left a deep hallow pit inside her and even when her grandmother died she hardly shed a single tear; yet here she was on the verge of tears. The bed dipped and she looked up to see Samantha sitting there, concern marring her features.

"Life has not been easy for you, has it?"

Zaria laughed, it sounded bitter. "That's one way of putting it."

"I don't think my life compares to yours, especially right now, but I can relate in a way. I was in love with this wonderful man, I'm not sure I really ever stopped loving him. We met when he was brought into the ER I worked at the time. I was the doctor on call, young, foolish, naive, and I thought I could help him. It was easy to fix the physical wounds, but the emotional ones; those are hard. We dated, I was so crazy about him, but he had secrets, secrets that I wasn't happy about. They were so many that I foolishly told him it was me of the secrets, and he chose them." Samantha bit her lip, as she took a deep breath. "That was tough. I moved on, it took me awhile but it happened, and I met my husband.

"This time I fell in love for a dying man. His previous wife had died in a car accident and it was just him and his daughter. He knew that he was dying, cancer does that, and he didn't want to leave his daughter without anyone so he asked me to marry him. I didn't want to, I didn't love him as dearly as I did the first man, but he wouldn't back down. He told me once that he knew that I didn't love him as much, but that he would be a good husband, so I relented." Samantha looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. "I had six months with him."

Zaria had no idea what to say to that so she kept her mouth shut and let the doctor continue.

"I adopted his daughter during that time, so now I have a six year old who starts kindergarten this year." She shook her head with a little laugh. "I think I got off topic. My point was that that first love, that real deep burning desire, never really goes away and when that person hurts you or you feel like you hurt them... That's the hardest part."

Zaria's vision swam making her blink several times in a vain attempt to keep them from spilling out as she turned her head away from Samantha. Silence followed Samantha's story as both girls sat there, the older one letting the younger deal with her emotions. Finally, Samantha laid a gentle hand on Zaria's leg as she stood up.

"I think you've deserved some time alone and seeing as they have not rushed in here after I destroyed their camera I don't think they'll be coming in for a while. Besides, I should probably relieve the Agent on babysitting duty." She smiled then went to the door, slipped out, and disappeared down the hallway by the sound of retreating heels on the hard floor.

In the stillness that followed Samantha's absence Zaria tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling as she struggled with her emotions. She thought about Steve. About how he must feel with her revelation. About his friend still being alive, and a traitor. About her withholding information from him. She wondered if he would forgive her or if he hated her.

She tried to be petty, to think about whether or not she still had a job, or both of them precisely, or if she had been replaced. She even thought about her grandmother's desk and her little project at the museum and if she would get them back or if they would keep them. It made her a little bitter about it all, but in the long run her heart still ached for the idea that Steve probably hated her.

And so, for the first time in a long time; she cried. She cried about the unfairness of her father's death, she cried for the pain she felt when her grandmother looked at her with disdain because she looked too much like the man that had abandoned her babulya when she was with child, she cried for the painful death of her grandmother went through because in the she still loved her family, and she cried for the first broken heart she ever had.

And finally, she just cried.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

It had been a week since Zaria woke in the hospital bed aboard S.H.I.E.L.D's Helicarrier. She had been allowed to enter their training facilities for physical therapy, although everyone began to realize that it was almost unnecessary. Most of the broken bones had healed probably, and fairly quickly, now all they were waiting for were the broken ribs.

Samantha had left the ship just after Zaria had woken up, leaving her in the care of Bruce Banner with strict instructions that it was Bruce or no one; she still had a daughter to look after. In the beginning Bruce had tried to make apologies for everyone's reactions to her, especially that of Steve's non-appearance since her waking, but he soon gave up with Zaria brushed them off and told him she had expected it. She was surprised to learn that Bruce wasn't actually a medical doctor, he specialized in Gamma Radiation, but he had extensively studied the Super Soldier project so he was the best to deal with the differences in her DNA.

Clothing had been provided to her since no one had actually gone to her home to retrieve any of her own clothing; there was still a debate about whether or not that should happen. So she wore black yoga pants, tank tops that ranged from white to gray to black and the various shades in between, and sports bras in colors matching the tank tops; at her request they brought her several leotards. They had not moved her out of the hospital room yet, keeping her segregated from the others even to the point where an Agent brings her food to her room and escorts her to the training area only when it's empty. She was a prisoner and in all but the name and the jail cell though she had come to viewing her hospital room as her jail cell.

This morning she was in the training room exceptionally early where, with the help on the unwilling Agent, she had set up bars for gymnastics. She had changed to one of the leotards she had been given and pinned her hair back as best she could. It almost felt foreign to her, dressing up for gymnastics when she had given it up when she had skipped out after the military school her grandmother had put her in, but here she was getting ready to do some maneuvers on the uneven bars.

She chalked and spritzed the bars with the help of the unhappy Agent before she chalked her hands and backed up to look at the bars. Staring at them she puffed up her cheeks as she considered how she wanted to go at them; maybe she should have started on the balance beam. It had been so long since she had been on actual equipment and not just doing movements wherever she could when the mood struck her and she hadn't been on the bars since she quit, but it was now or never. If she didn't get up on them now she didn't think she would ever do it.

So, after a moment's hesitation where she was sure the Agent watching her was wondering if she would just stand there staring all day, she ran at them, catching the low bar and propelling herself up and onto the high bar. She started simple, holding herself up on the high bar in a handstand as still and for as long as she could before letting gravity swing her body down and around, bending her legs as she passed the lower bar so she didn't bang into it. She continued to spin around on the high bar as she got back into the feel of it, spinning with both hands on the bar or with one. When one hand was on she rotated her body a full turn around as she swung up and her body was completely perpendicular to the bar. As she got more comfortable she began to release and let herself fly to the lower bar where she would spin herself around it, rotating the direction of her swing, and launching herself back to the high bar.

Now that she was more comfortable she threw her body weight into the air, going to the splits, as she rotated the direction she was facing and catching the bar again before flinging herself to the lower bar, swinging her body around and launching herself back up to the high bar. The feeling was exhilarating, the feeling of flinging herself through the air only to catch herself on a small bar before twisting her body around on her hands and launching herself off again. She grew bolder in her movements, pushing herself off into the air in a twisting movement before snapping her hands back onto the bar for the downward swing.

Her ribs had begun to ache somewhere in the routine until finally she knew she was done for the day, so in a last ditch effort of truly enjoying the feeling of flying, she spun around the high bar several times, picking up speed before she launched herself into the air, releasing the bar as her body twisted around and around as she went from head to the floor to feet to the floor. The landing jarred her and pain rocketed through her side, but with someone watching her she kept her feet together and straightened herself up with her arms pointed above her head from the years of competitions.

There was applause from one side of the room and Zaria whirled around, surprised that the unhappy Agent tasked with watching her would be applauding, and came face to face with Steve. Stunned, she just stood there staring, her mouth probably a gape with shock.

"I, uh..." She started as she shook herself free from the paralyzing surprise. "How- How long have you been standing there?"

"I'm pretty sure I saw the whole routine." Steve answered. "You didn't say you did gymnastics."

"I haven't done them since I left school..." She answered reflexively as she began to look around for the Agent. "I'm sorry, I'll leave; I'm not supposed to be in here if others want to train. I'm surprised my prison guard didn't stop me to tell me. Sorry about that."

"I told him to let you finish."

Zaria's head snapped back in surprise. "I'm sorry, you what?"

"I told him to let you finish. You seemed to be enjoying yourself."

"I uh..." She started as she tried to figure out what to say in response. This was the first time she stood facing Steve since he found her trying to kill her grandfather and here he was just making small talk about gymnastics. She took a breath, trying to quell the butterflies in her stomach, and her ribs caught, pain sparking through her side and lancing into her brain causing white sparks to blossom in her vision. Instinctively her hand went to her side as she hissed in pain.

"Are you alright?" Steve questioned, concern coloring his voice.

"I'll be fine." Zaria answered through gritted teeth. "It'll pass in a moment."

She straightened, moving her hand away from her ribs in a vain attempt to hide her pain, but pain speared through her body again and she went down to a knee before she could help it. She closed her eyes as she tried to take control of the situation.

"If you need help you can ask." Steve's voice came from next to her. The mat dipped as he knelt next to her.

"But I don't."

"Don't what?"

"Ask for help." Zaria breathed out slowly as she made her way to her feet again; pain convulsed her ribs as she tried desperately to avoid showing any signs of it. "I'll be fine."

Steve stood with her, watching her carefully which made her angry; she didn't like to be treated as a child.

"Look, don't act like you're concerned about me. It's pretty obvious that you don't so just, don't."

"What makes you think that I don't?" Steve asked, he sounded genuinely surprised by her statement.

"You haven't been around or even spoken to me since I woke up, and probably hadn't even been into see me since I was brought here. The only reason you're talking to me now is because you ran into me here. You probably would have gone on without seeing me if you could have."

Silence pervaded the room and she was sure she had hit the proverbial nail on the head. She felt tears in her eyes and quickly blinked them away. The truth had hurt more than she thought it would, part of her had hoped that it wasn't true but she couldn't hide from the truth when she was the one that put it out there in the first place so she turned to the exit of the training room without a backwards glance at Steve.

"It's true," Steve's voice caught her off guard. "I had been trying to avoid you for a while; at least since I found out the truth about you. I didn't know how I would react if I saw you."

Zaria hung her head, her throat thick with unshed tears as she struggled to gain her composure. The truth, though it hurt, was probably for the best. At least this way she knew where she stood with him and she could move on with her life.

"But that's not the whole truth."

Her shoulders dropped as her head went back and she stared up at the ceiling. All she wanted was for him to let it go, not rub it continuously in her face.

"What's not the whole truth?"

"I did come to see you, every day since I brought you here unconscious after the attack." Steve had moved up behind her, she could feel his presence radiating off of him. It made her almost want to turn around and curl up in the embrace of his arms. Almost.

"Why?" She nearly whispered. Even with the pain in her side raging, spearing her with every breath, she needed to know more. She warred with herself, this could all be a ruse, it could end badly, or it could be the truth, he could really be concerned about her, care about her; she wasn't sure which.

"I was concerned about you. You were dying in my arms while we waited for someone to pick us up. No one expected you to survive, not even you. But somehow you survived; you pulled through it when everyone else had given up on you. Yes, I felt betrayed. You clearly knew the person who you were trying to kill or be killed by, I'm still not sure which. It's hard to not see that when he called you names, said things that were too intimate to just be a kidnapper, but you save Jane and Pepper's life when you didn't have to, you killed those men to make sure they would be safe, you attacked a man that was far stronger than you even if you knew you wouldn't win. You put others before yourself, I can't be that angry with you."

"Even with the truth?"

"Even with the truth."

"I should have told you..." She said as her hands balled into fists. "You had a right to know the truth before now."

"And how would you have told me? 'Hi, I'm the granddaughter of your best friend. Oh no, he's not dead, he's just working for the Russians now'." He sounded bitter when he mentioned the last part.

"You didn't need to find out in front of everyone, that wasn't fair."

"You're right, you should have told me sooner, but how would you have done that? And what makes you think I would have believed you? If I hadn't seen him in person and see the pictures S.H.I.E.L.D could pull up on him I would have told you James Buchanan Barnes died that day when he fell from the train."

"He did die." Zaria muttered. "That man is not the same man you knew. Whatever they've done to him he doesn't know anything about his past before he started working for the Russians. For all intents and purposes James Barnes died, that man is the Winter Soldier and nothing and no one else."

After a moment's pause Steve chuckled quietly. "You remind me of him. Just as stubborn."

Zaria spun around and jabbed her finger into Steve's chest. "I am nothing like that man," She snapped. "The only thing we have in common is our DNA and that's because there's nothing I can do about it."

Steve raised his hands in surrender and said nothing.

Zaria growled angrily and turned on her heel, stalking off a few paces before wincing in pain and attempting not to clutch her side, it wouldn't make the pain go away and she didn't like to show weakness.

Suddenly she was upturned, her legs swept out from under her, a strong arm encircling her back as her head was cradled against a firm chest. Surprised, she looked up to see Steve carrying her.

"What are you doing?" She asked, confusion coloring her voice.

"Taking you back to your room where we can get you something for the pain." Steve answered as if it should have been obvious to her.

"Why are you carrying me? I can walk just fine."

"Yes, you can walk, but I doubt Doctor Banner or Doctor Davenport would appreciate me letting you cause more issues by walking back to your room when I can help."

Zaria sighed, she would win the argument as far as she could tell, but some part of her secretly enjoyed being carried as if she were something fragile. Because just this once, she wanted to be fragile, she wanted to be carried, and she wanted to be cared for.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Absolutely not!" Samantha snapped her arms crossed under her large chest; Zaria had a moment of petty jealousy of breast size.

"And why not? It's a good idea." Nick responded his arms also cross over his chest as he basically had a staring contest with Samantha.

"It's a stupid idea!" Samantha slammed her hands on the table as she stood up. "I cannot allow you to use my patient like that."

"If she can prove that she's on our side and not their side I would be willing to release her from here."

"She is not a prisoner in the first place!" Samantha was angry, and from the look on the other team member's faces, this was something they had never seen. "You have no right to keep her here in the first place, but I will not allow you to use her as bait!"

"I never said the word "bait". All I said was she would be a perfect candidate to get the Winter Soldier out of hiding."

"By using her as bait!" Samantha waved her hand in Zaria's general direction making Zaria wish she had the ability to disappear. "I don't know where you've been this whole time but I had a very personal experience with what that man did to her the last time she was caught by him. I will not allow her to put herself in that type of danger again just so you can have the minor chance of catching that man. He might **kill** her this time!"

"She's right, in a sense." Zaria finally spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Fury turned the full brunt of his attention on her along with everyone else at the table. Zaria had to fight the urge to fidget.

"I would be a bad choice of bait for the Winter Soldier. The next time I see him, I will kill him."

"And what a great job you did last time you ran into him." Fury commented.

Zaria's hands curled into fists under the table but her reply was as cold as ice. "I did clear half the bunker before finding him, excuse me for being half dead when I started that fight, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. Besides, there is nothing I can do that will draw him out. Even if he thought I somehow survived he knows my next move is to leave and disappear. I wouldn't just go on living normally."

"But you haven't packed any of your stuff up. One would think, if you survived, you would have to at least return to your place to get the essentials."

He was right, of course. She could do without most of the stuff she had at her apartment if she had to, but there were a few things she couldn't part with and her grandfather would know that if he knew anything at all about her.

"I would still be lousy bait as the moment I see him he's getting two rounds in the chest and one in the head most likely before you even get a chance to catch him."

"And where are you going to get a gun to do that with?"

"Any gun shop." At the odd look from Fury she sighed. "If you had actually taken the time to read my file you would know that everything I was convicted for doesn't transfer over as it was all when I was under the legal age to be tried as an adult. Even the stuff that technically happened "while I was an adult" was removed as there is no legal birth certificate that can tell you the exact date of my birth. All charges as an adult had to be dropped because the dates on both legal and certified birth certificates that can be located do not have corresponding dates. The judge ruled that I was under the legal age and it was all sealed when I turned eighteen the next month. So do you honestly think that I still cannot go to any gun shop anywhere and get myself a gun? In Texas I can get two."

She smiled, smug with the notion that she had just won the argument. Fury glared but didn't respond. She was right and he knew it he just didn't want to agree with it.

"I doubt you would shoot him in broad daylight with more witnesses than you could count."

Zaria's eyes hardened. "You know full well I would do whatever I had to, to make sure he died even if that means going to jail for murder. But he is not stupid to approach me in broad daylight anyway so I doubt that would ever be a problem."

The table was dead silent as everyone watched Director Fury. Zaria wasn't going to back down; she knew that what they wanted her to do was something she would never be able to do. She wondered what Steve was thinking when she said she would kill his best friend if she had the chance, but she couldn't lie, not about this.

Finally, Fury uncrossed his arms and put his hands on his hips, feet apart, in an aggressive dominating stance; he had made up his mind and she wasn't going to like it.

"You will either go along with the plan without killing the target or you can stay here on the Helicarrier with an Agent watching you twenty four hours a day seven days a week and never get the chance to get off this ship."

Zaria's mouth nearly dropped open, she was stunned. He really was going to treat her like a prisoner if she didn't go along with his plan?

Samantha, who had been sitting silently beside Zaria during her face off with Director Fury, was outraged. Her hands slammed down on the table, making Zaria nearly wonder if the woman would snap it in half, as she stood up and jabbed a finger in Fury's direction. "Zaria is not a prisoner! You cannot treat her like that. You have **no** right to hold her here against her will just because **you** can't control her to do what you want her to do."

"On the contrary, she's related to a major political assassin and we do not know what her affiliation is with him. She could very well get off this ship and warn him that we are looking for him. She is a flight risk and a danger to society as a whole, I have every right to keep her here indefinitely for the safety of the public as a whole."

Samantha looked as dumbfounded as Zaria felt; they really could hold her indefinitely? She tore her eyes away from Fury to look at Steve for his response, surely he wouldn't agree with this, but as her eyes passed over his face she saw the grim look on it. His lips were pinched in a thin line and he appeared to not be enjoying what Fury said, but it didn't appear like he was going to argue with him about it. The realization shocked her almost more than the fact that Fury was planning on keeping her a prisoner on his ship for the rest of her days.

Samantha recovered enough to try and catch her dignity. She straightened slowly as she raised her chin and stared at Fury with still seething anger in her eyes. "I want off this ship right now. I cannot work with people like you and still have a clear conscious if you're so willing to do something so atrocious to an innocent." She turned on her four inch heel and stalked from the room, her white lab coat billowing behind her like a cape.

The team watched her go and Zaria noticed that Clint only remained in his seat by sheer force of will and she wondered if he was the man with the secrets in Samantha's story.

"So," Fury said into the astonished silence that followed Samantha's departure. "What will it be Ms. Barnes? A lifetime locked on this ship or being bait to capture a war criminal that you are not allowed to kill?"

Zaria turned her attention back to the man who basically had her life in his hands. He had no idea what he was messing with.

"Fine," she said coolly. "I'll be your bait."

"Then get ready, you're going home now." Fury eyed her suspiciously. "Steve will be going with you to make sure you keep in line. Dismissed."

Zaria stood from the table and ran over her options. She doubted Steve would allow her to go and buy a gun but if she remembered correctly she still had her grandmother's old revolver somewhere in the apartment. She wasn't even sure if it would fire, but she had to try and she could get to it without alerting Steve. So she, Steve and Clint made their way down a hallway to wherever it was they had their way of getting off the Helicarrier. Zaria gave Clint an odd look; she wasn't sure why he was coming with them.

"I'm to fly you down to New York." He said, although he looked more like he was joining them only to find one particular person. Who happened to be leaning against the wall ahead on them with her arms crossed and a sound look on her face. Clint could barely constrain himself enough to walk to her instead of run. He had his arms out like he was going to embrace her but she shook her head.

"Jasmine called her from her grandparents' house." Samantha said as if to explain the lack of wanting to touch. "I didn't like the sounds I heard so I really do need to get back."

Clint lowered his hands and nodded. Zaria thought he would have looked upset about her denying him but he looked more distraught about what Samantha just told him. "Did she say anything?"

Samantha shook her head again as she turned and walked ahead of them with Clint. Zaria fell back a few more steps feeling she should give them privacy. She touched Steve's arm gently and when he looked she indicated the two up front with a nod of her head.

"We should probably give them space." She murmured. Steve slowed down to match pace with her. "Do you know who Jasmine is?"

"Jasmine is Samantha's daughter. She's really sweet; I think you'd like her if you met her."

"I don't do well with kids."

Steve didn't respond, perhaps he didn't know what to say, so they walked in silence to the hangar and got on one of the planes to return to New York where Zaria would have to face her grandfather eventually.

Ride back to New York was uneventful. Samantha sat up front with Clint and Steve and Zaria sat in back. Clint left them off in a relatively familiar area before he and Samantha continued off to their destination. Zaria looked around as she considered what she wanted to do.

"I feel like I should check in with my jobs to see if I still have them and let them know I'm alive." Zaria said finally.

"Fury had a cover arranged and told your bosses that you would be back so they still should have the positions held for you."

Zaria stared at Steve confused. "What kind of cover story did he come up with? I've been missing for a month and I'm pretty sure when I didn't show up for either of my jobs I was reported missing. Joe would have done it at the very least."

"The missing person's report never made it to the police; Natasha intercepted it and took the call herself. I don't know what Fury came up with, but and Agent went to both of your jobs and told them you would be gone for a while doing something."

Zaria just shook her head. "I doubt Joe believed that. Come on, I should probably see to him first."

They arrived at the bar just after its noontime opening. Zaria considered whether or not she should enter in the back or the front and finally decided the back would be safest so she didn't cause a scene if any of the regulars were in today. The heavy metal door was locked and when she reached for her keys she realized she didn't have them, so in the end she had to knock and as she waited she considered if going in the front would have just been easier in the long run.

The door opened to reveal Joe's haggard frame. The big man just leaned against the frame and crossed his arms as he stared at her. Zaria had to fight the urge to fidget under his gaze, she felt like a child being caught doing something wrong and waiting for her father to reprimand her.

"So," Joe finally said as he scrutinized her and Steve. "You finally back from seeing that distant relative that died and left you money?"

Zaria's head snapped around and stared at Steve stupefied. "Could he really not come up with something better?"

Steve raised his hands in surrender. "I guess he thought they would buy it."

"I could see George or Annette possibly buying that really obvious bullshit but Joe," she waved at the man in question. "Joe invented the bullshit detector."

"The what?" Steve asked confused.

"Bullshit detector." Joe answered. "I can tell ya when people are lyin' to me and that man in his spiffy suit and shades screamed all kinds of bullshit before even opening his mouth. Now are ya going to tell me what really happened or am I kickin' you out of my bar?"

"Zaria hung her head, she had been really hoping to avoid telling Joe anything. "Can we at least come in...?"

"So you're telling me that you were kidnapped, attacked your kidnappers, were shot in the process of escape, nearly died, and now you're just waltzing into my bar as if nothing happened? You do realize I'm not stupid."

Zaria sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. Steve had been almost no help with telling the story so she edited what she could but told him nearly all of it. "Honestly Joe that's about what happened. I can't tell you all of it, I don't think it would be safe and I doubt you would believe most of it even if I tried. And if I told you the whole thing I would have to tell you it from the very, very beginning and that is a really long story."

"This doesn't have to do with Jimmy does it? Because if it does I'm going to kill that little rat."

Zaria looked stricken and Steve turned his attention to her with a look of confusion.

"Who's Jimmy."

"Someone we never speak of." Zaria answered automatically.

"He's the rat that got her into all that trouble she's been in. Making her join his gang, getting her into trouble with that museum, and leaving her out to dry for it. Not to mention the years of abuse. If you would just let me I could wipe that shmuck off the face of the Earth and no one would even care."

"This man, he hurt you?" Steve asked with barely veiled anger. Zaria flushed; she didn't like discussing this part of her past with anyone.

"Look he's ancient history, haven't seen him in forever." Which was a lie and both she and Joe knew it, but he wasn't saying anything different. "And it didn't have anything to do with him or whatever gang he's in or now in or not in. It was a random act of kidnapping, must have thought Steve had a lot of money or something."

Joe watched her, studying her as he thought about what she said. "You would tell me the truth if you could, right? This kid's not here to keep you from telling me anything is he? Because if he's threatening you like Jimmy did-"

"Steve isn't like that." Zaria said hurriedly before Steve had a chance to say anything. "He's the one that saved my life, honest. If I could tell you everything I would, but I don't want to put you at risk."

Joe leaned back in his old chair, it squeaked in protest as usual. "I wasn't a navy gunner so I could be safe Zaria, I can handle myself."

"I would hate myself if anything happened to you. And you're retired now, it's not like you have a ship you can climb onto anytime you want to shoot people with. Steve's here, he's going to keep me safe, right?" She turned to Steve with a questioningly look.

"She's safe with me Joe; I won't let them get her again."

Joe eyed Steve as he considered Steve's words. "You better not. You better take good care of that girl sittin' next to you. She may not be my blood but she's as important to me as my own kids are. If anything were to happen to her again you will be the one who will be snuffed out."

With the posturing finished Steve and Zaria left the bar and went to the museum where, after a quick explanation that, no Zaria had not received any inheritance, yes she would give them money if she did ever get it, and made sure both her grandmother's desk and her little project were still intact and safe they returned to her apartment building.

At the apartment Zaria buzzed her landlord to ask to borrow his keys claiming she had run out and forgotten her's when she had gotten the news of the dead relative. Once she had them they headed straight up to her apartment.

"You don't have to come with me." She said again.

"Last time I let you walk to your own apartment alone you were kidnapped." Steve answered, again.

"It wasn't your fault." She tried.

A muscle in Steve's jaw twitched and Zaria realized he did actually blame himself for what happened to her. She stopped on a landing and turned to Steve.

"Hey," she said as she took his hand in her own. "Have I thanked you yet for saving my life?"

Steve looked down at her. "No, I don't think you have."

"Thank you, for saving me. And for believing in me. If I were in your shoes I don't think I would have been as supportive as you have been, I would have cut my losses and run for the hills." She smiled.

He hesitated before he lifted his free hand and cupped her cheek gently. "I was so afraid that you were going to die. It's been so long since I've felt this alive around another person and I nearly lost it all."

He leaned down slowly and pressed his lips to hers. It was a gentle kiss, one that spoke of fear of rejection and hope for acceptance. His lips were soft and full against hers. It wasn't demanding or possessive, just caring and sweet. She wanted to jump into him, to hold herself tightly against him and take more, but she wouldn't. She would let him lead where he wanted to go and she would following willingly.

"Get a room." Someone muttered. Zaria's face flushed a dark red and her cheeks burned as Steve pulled back with a little laugh.

"I guess we should get to my apartment." Zaria mumbled as she turned and quickly led the way up the last flight of stairs to her apartment. She hadn't let go of Steve's hand.

At the apartment door Steve took the keys from her.

"Let me go in first." He slid the key into the first lock, undoing each of them slowly and precisely.

Zaria stood back, something feeling off about the whole thing. Pursing her lips she stared at the door as she tried to figure out what it was until it finally clicked.

"Don't open the door!" She cried as she stepped up to him and tried to yank him back but it was too late.

The door swung open and the humming sound from behind the door stopped with a click and a bang as her entire apartment exploded. Steve turned around, trying to block her from the explosion as it sent both of them back into the banister. His weight smacked into her as the old wood gave way under the pressure and she went through it and over the edge. She cried out in surprise as she fell. A firm hand caught her wrist, yanking her arm and stopping the descent to the floor far below.

"I got you!" Steve shouted over the roar of the flames coming from her room. She hung there for a moment in disbelief. Her apartment had blown up just like in the movies. And just like in the movies she had been blown back, through the railing and nearly fallen ten floors to the ground below.

Steve pulled; jostling her from her stupor, as he slowly dragged her back onto the landing. With firm ground under her feet she all but leapt into the flames of her apartment.

"What are you doing?" Steve cried in shock as he yanked her bodily against him.

"My stuff!" Zaria cried. "My father's jacket, my grandmother's ring, I need to get them I can't replace those!"

"And I can't replace you if you run in there and get yourself killed in the fire." Steve snapped as strong arms turned her to face him. "You're more important than anything else."

Smoke burned her eyes and lungs as she stared at Steve wide eyed. Everything important to her had just gone up in flames in her apartment. Every precious item she ever collected destroyed. Tears misted her vision as she balled the front of Steve's shirt in her hands. She rested her head against his chest and he held her to him in response.

"I'm going to kill him..." She murmured. "I don't care what Director Fury says, the next time I see my grandfather: he's dead."


	11. Author's Note PLEASE READ!

**An Important Author's Note to the Very Important Readers: ****Please****, read this.**

**Hello to all my wonderful readers of this surprisingly loved story!**

** As I'm sure you're all curious and concerned, I'm not stopping the story I just felt like I had a few things I had to say before I continue.**

** Chapter 11 is well underway when I suddenly realized I had a few things I wanted to get off my chest to all of you.**

** First off, I have been asked to give warnings at the beginning of the chapter for anything that will be violent like what happened previously. So I will be putting a warning at the beginning of the chapter for anything Violent along with the erotic (coughsexcough) scenes that ARE COMING UP!**

** I'm not sure how many of you actually know the real Avenger's storyline so I feel like I may have spoiled some really important things that are coming up in the next movie as I was already aware of it.**

** The Winter Soldier is not a character I randomly made up that happened to be Bucky Barnes. Bucky Barnes really is The Winter Soldier from the original Marvel© The Avengers© and Captain America© storyline. I am not going to follow that all the way as that is one of the storylines that is not one of the happiest, but I did try to stay as close as I could to it without really messing it up.**

** Also, I know how many of you are really looking forward to more stuff with Steve or Steve/Zaria and I want to be honest, the story may not stay going that way as my characters kind of take on a life of their own and decide where the story is going to go.**

** The end of Two Weeks and After is coming up, but not the end of the plot line; there is still more I want/need to do before I feel completely satisfied and I will give you a little hint; Bruce wasn't just a random secondary character I randomly picked when setting up the story in FanFiction.**

** I am having trouble coming up with a new story name as I want it to stick with the theme of "Two _" so if there are any readers who are okay with some minor/major spoilers and want to help me pick a name please, PLEASE message me so I can figure this out soon (:**

** You have all been really wonderful and I do really hope that you truly enjoy this story as it grows, changes, expands and shrinks in ways that you (or even I) may not been expecting!**

** NOW! Back to Chapter 11 with me and hopefully you will see something new next week!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Hello Everyone, I am so sorry this took as long as it did. I just, had a really hard time writing this chapter. I hated it and deleted pages and pages of things I wrote because I just didn't like how it came out. **

**I also spoke with my husband and I finally have decided that there won't be a second story and that this one will just be a little longer than what I usually do as I don't feel like I have enough to have a whole second story arch and make it feel well rounded. I would rather have one slightly longer story than two shorter ones that I'm not completely happy with.**

**On that note Please enjoy Chapter 11!**

**I do warn you there is an erotic scene at the end.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

"Own, geez." Zaria hissed as she pushed the Emergency Medical Technician's hand away from her first. "I think you plucking the splinters out is making them hurt worse than leaving them there."

"Ms. Barnes, if you can just hold still a little longer I almost have them all out." Was the response from the Emergency personnel. He held her chin lightly as he plucked another wood fragment from the cut that went through her eyebrow.

The response to the burning building had been quick, but the firefighters were still working on putting out all the flames. Her floor had been evacuated and the collateral damage appeared to be minimum, which was a blessing, but her landlord didn't look all that pleased even if it was.

Zaria's injuries were minimal, smoke inhalation had her holding an oxygen mask to her face on and off while the EMT worked on her face and she had a split lip to match the slice on her face, but outside of those a few wood particles stuck to her were all that could be seen. Steve on the other hand was awash with injuries ranging from burns on his back to gauges in his arm and hands from when he dove to catch her; not to mention the smoke inhalation.

With the last splinter out of her face the EMT slapped on some butterfly bandages and claimed she was as good as he could get her without taking her to the hospital for a more thorough exam, which she had declined.

Zaria scanned the crowd of people that had gathered wondering if she would see a familiar face, and she did, except it wasn't the one she was expecting to see; Jimmy sneered at her from the crowd. The whole world seemed to fade away as she stared at him, shocked by his presence in the crowd, and wondered if maybe, just maybe, he had been the one to rig her apartment to explode.

Jimmy's gaze went to where Steve was sitting and for a moment Zaria could see the unbridled loathing he had for the other man making Zaria really wonder if this wasn't about Jimmy's new employer at all and more about the fact that he couldn't possess her anymore. It was chilling to think that this incident had nothing to do with her grandfather and everything to do with a jealous ex-boyfriend.

She stared at him until the press of bodies blocked him from view and she continued to scan the crowd. Somewhere during her staring at Jimmy Samantha and Clint had made their way to the front and were arguing with the police. Eventually two cops came over to her and Steve.

"Well looks like we've been asked to release you two. Seems like you have friends in high places." The older cop with the grayed moustache said as he eyed them critically.

Zaria hated cops for a number of reasons, one of them being how they always looked at her as if it was always her fault, even when it honestly wasn't. She huffed under their glare and crossed her arms. She knew the shtick and she didn't want to get into today.

"Ms. Barnes, could you give us a number that we could get in contact with you at? And if you wouldn't mind not leaving the state while we're investigating this."

"Well seeing as my apartment blew up and I don't own a cellphone I don't have a phone number you can reach me at. And where in the world would I go? Clearly I have no car or money to move anywhere else." She snapped.

The cops gave her a rueful expression. They obviously didn't like her response. "Then maybe you wouldn't mind coming down to the station and giving us a full report there?"

She rolled her eyes, she knew the routine. "Not in the back of one of your squad cars. I don't need to be vilified by the press. Besides, I know what happens when I get there. I'll be stuck in an interrogation room and interrogated for hours until I either "break" or give you false information just to get out of there."

"We could just take you down there as a suspect in the destruction of your apartment."

"And why in the hell would I want to blow my apartment, with myself and my friend included?" Zaria threw her hands up in the air. "You know what, I'm through. You can talk to me again after I get a lawyer."

"Now Ms. Barnes, that's not necessary if you're innocent." One of them chided.

"Shove off," she snapped. "I refuse to talk anymore without a lawyer."

"But until then we will still need to get in contact with you."

"You can have my number." Steve said. Zaria turned to look at him, he looked exhausted.

"And you can promise that if we call we can get in contact with her through you?"

"You can contact her through me until she gets a lawyer, then you can contact her through her lawyer." To Zaria he said, "I think Tony has some good lawyers on payroll that he can get you in contact with."

Steve exchanged his phone number with the cops as a few more uniformed officers made a hole to the car that was idling, waiting for them. The windows were heavily tinted in the back, a perfect way to not be seen by the newscasters that were prowling around the edges. Sliding off the gurney she had been sitting on, Zaria watched Steve as his movements were careful and deliberate so he didn't pull any of the tender skin on his back, but even with the slow movements he didn't reveal how much pain he was probably in.

"We'll be in touch." One of the cops said from behind them but Zaria resisted the urge to turn around and say or give them something rude, instead she moved ahead of Steve and got to the car first, pulling open the door and letting him in before she slid in and slammed the door shut quickly.

Sighing she sunk into the car's seats before she glanced over at Steve. Her mouthed opened to say something but Clint from the front seat cut her off.

"I've already told Fury that your placed was bombed. I assume we're all on the same page when we say that it was clearly the Winter Soldier that did it."

"No..." Zaria said, defeated by the whole conundrum, "it wasn't him. Not directly anyway, and I doubt he even okayed the plan to blow up my apartment, not really his style."

"Then who was it."

"My possessive, crazy, psychotic ex-boyfriend. James Rickshaw."

Clint caught her gaze in the rearview mirror. "You're going to have to explain all of this."

"Yeah, sure fine, whatever. Now or...?"

Clint hit a button on the car's console and the whole car started ringing.

"Fury." Nick Fury's voice shouted from all directions of the car.

"Fury, its Barton. Zaria claims she knows who blew up her apartment."

"We're already under the assumption that it was the Winter Soldier."

"It's not him." Zaria answered with exacerbation. "It's not something he would do."

"You're telling me that he wouldn't blow up something if it got him what he wanted?"

Zaria shrugged and realized that he couldn't see it. "He might, but he's an assassin, what good would it do him to blow something up? That's too obvious. All his other hits have been subtle, so subtle in fact that some of them are attributed to natural causes." That earned her a look from everyone in the car. She fought the urge to fidget. "Look, I know it wasn't him. It was a man named James Rickshaw who works for him. His criminal record is probably triple what mine is."

"And how do you know it was him?"

"I dated him. Or more like he decided we were dating and he made sure I stayed under his thumb and did whatever he wanted me to do. I saw him in the crowd when we were down with the EMTs. In a nutshell, the look on his face wasn't pleasant. It was him. I'm sure the Winter Soldier had no idea what was going on, he probably doesn't even know what Ji - James did." She stopped, considering something, and then paled.

"What?" Clint asked he was still watching her, quick glances in the rearview mirror.

"The cops are all this case. If, no when, he, my - the Winter Soldier finds out what happened he's going to take it personally. He's going to kill Rickshaw."

"Do you think he'd really do that? He did try to kill you himself."

"Yeah, but that was him taking control. I'm his blood, his property pretty much; he can do what he wants with me but if someone else does something to me against his wishes... It's not going to be pretty."

There was a long pause that made Zaria feel like Fury had hung up on them.

"Come back in and we'll discuss this."

"Actually, Nick, I think what would be best is for Steve to return to his place and rest. He has some minor burns and will need time to rest, and I also wondered if I might take Zaria shopping for clothing, a lawyer, a cellphone, undergarments..." Samantha cut in.

"Did you just say a lawyer?"

"Ah you heard that." Samantha sounded embarrassed although she didn't look it. "Well you know how law enforcement is, always looking at the victim as the suspect. So I just thought that it might be best if she had a lawyer the next time they try to get in contact with her."

Another pause and Zaria wondered what Nick Fury was thinking. "Barton, give Davenport the card. Rogers, go get some rest before you return to the ship. Davenport, I expect to see Barnes up on my ship in an hour."

Zaria nearly groaned, just barely suppressing it enough so that Fury couldn't hear her. She didn't want to be back on that ship, she had spent nearly a month on it as is and she wanted to get back to work as she was clearly behind on paying her bills.

"I told the officers that they could get in contact with Zaria through me so it might be best if she stays with me, at the very least until she can get a lawyer and give the police their number instead." Steve spoke up in a slightly strained voice.

Fury made a noise that sounded like displeasure, but since the logic was solid there wasn't much he could do. "Very well, see it done," then he clicked off the phone.

The rest of the day was a blur. After dropping Steve off at his classically beautiful and highly expensive apartment building, Samantha dragged Zaria around to several stores in search for "hip and mod" clothing. Several stores, and several very large bags later Samantha dragged both a very uncomfortable Clint and awkward feeling Zaria into a undergarment specialty store for perfect fitting bras and matching panties; she even bought some for herself.

Evening found Zaria hauling the bags of clothing into the elevator and up to the private entrance to Steve's apartment where she used the key that he had left with the doorman to unlock the front door, stepped in, shut the door and was stunned by the look of the apartment.

To her right was a long closet, or pantry is what she assumed since to her left was the large L-shaped kitchen. The kitchen itself was done in a modern design with an old classic feel. It was reminiscent of her kitchen but everything was high end making her wonder if Steve even really used it. Ahead there was an island that separated the kitchen from the large, expansive living room that was decorated in modern minimalistic furniture and decor. The living room itself was the size of her entire apartment and she felt a stab of jealousy before she wondered what she would do with so much space. This living room didn't feel like it was actually lived in, it felt staged for selling, her home felt lived in. Stepping further into the luscious apartment she sat her bags in a corner and glance down the hall to the left of the kitchen. There were three closed doors, one was the bedroom, one was a bathroom and one was a linen closet; or so she assumed. Since she hadn't seen Steve she guessed he was behind one of those closed doors. Turning back to the living room she finally noticed that the large bank of windows held a glass door that led to a wide balcony.

Passing quickly through the cold living room, Zaria tugged on the huge sliding door, it stuck. Scrunching up her face she examined the door and, realizing it was locked, flipped the latch before tugging on it again; it glided open in silence. Cold air rushed in making her shiver but giving her a feeling of exhilaration. It was almost like the wind that blew in brought life into the comfortless apartment. She breathed deep of the wintry air before stepping out onto the chilly cement balcony and gazed at the city. It was evening, the sun sinking behind the buildings and lighting up the glass towers around her with gold, red and orange light, making them sparkle like jewels in the industrial heart. Here, on the balcony, she was high enough that most of the ambient light didn't block her view of the stars that began to appear in the ink-black sky above. She sighed forlornly. The city would always be beautiful to her in its glittering industrial grime, it shone like gems stuck in muck of cave rock before it was polished to a bright sparkle, but nothing compared to the endless beauty of the sky over her childhood home that was buried deep in what felt like a forgotten part of the world. She had forgotten how much she missed those sky dusted skies living in her apartment but here on Steve's balcony she felt a tug to be living in the wild where she could stare the sky for hours as the dawn came and painted a true rainbow in the heavens.

Suddenly all thoughts stopped as the wheels in her brain finally caught up to information that it had apparently glossed over earlier. She wasn't at her apartment, she was at Steve's. This was Steve's apartment, not her's. Suddenly she felt completely embarrassed. She was staying with Steve, at his place, his refuge. Even if it was purely for the fact that the police would need to be in touch with her about the destruction of her apartment, she suddenly felt nervous, like she did when she was young and waited for the boy she liked to pick her up to go to the movies. She had the overwhelming urge to change into something nicer than the grubby track pants and tank top that smelled of smoke and burnt oil she still wore from earlier in the day. Quickly she stepped back into the living room and shut the balcony door before hurrying to the pile of bags in the far corner of the room to find something decent.

Rummaging through the clothing produced a sweater dress, knit tights a matching set of bra and panties, and a toiletry set that she hadn't realized Samantha had gotten for her. Silently thanking Samantha for being level headed enough to get her the toiletry set, Zaria quickly set off to figure out which of the closed doors was the bathroom. Four doors, left, center, and two on the right, stared at her as, with pursed lips, she tried to decipher them. She ruled out the middle one quickly as, under the view of the layout she could see, that was the best bet for a bedroom that fit the size of the rest of the apartment, leaving the right ones and the left for the bathroom. One of the doors on the right and the left one were the matching split doors that folded in the middle so it was easy enough to assume they were either closets or a washer/dryer set and a closet so that left the only other door on the right.

Opening the door revealed a fairly large bathroom done in black and white. The floors were done in black porcelain tile; the walls were in a white marble veined in silver/gray. One wall sported a double vanity in a black colored wood topped with a long rectangular white basin with two faucets that were a stainless steel while the other wall housed the separate tub that was a chic white porcelain square that butted up against the corner glassed in shower with a black backsplash. The opposite corner of the shower was the white toilet. It was modern and just as impersonal as the rest of the house. Even the towels seemed impersonal somehow. The only thing that felt like Steve was the small toothbrush holder that housed a toothbrush and razor.

Shivering at the cold feeling that she got from the room, she set her clothing on a hook on the back of the door before she turned a faucet on and searched for a wash cloth as she didn't really want to climb into the shower and run the risk of waking Steve up. Finding one, she set it under the now warm water issuing from the faucet to soak as she peeled off the dirty clothing and tossed them into the trash. Quickly she scrubbed herself with the washcloth, repeating several times before she felt that she was as clean as she could get while not taking a full shower. Finished with the sponge bath she rinsed the cloth out several times before hanging it on one of the bars on the vanity and letting herself air dry as she rummaged through the bag of toiletries. Pulling out a hair brush she ran it under the faucet, wetting the bristles, and ran it through her hair; repeating the process a few more times.

Eventually she felt clean and satisfied with her appearance so she pulled on the matching underwear set that was colored a soft powder blue then struggled into the knit tights, all the while wondering why women wore them when pants were much easier. Last was the sweater dress. It was cashmere with long sleeves and a cowl neck done in a rich peacock blue that made her eyes more blue than green. It tried around the waist with a matching strip of peacock blue cashmere. She had paused to look at it in the store for just long enough that Samantha insisted to the point of annoying that she try it on. Once it was on Samantha had decided Zaria would get it and set out getting items to pair with it, so the little peacock blue sweat dress had a full ensemble that she wasn't planning on putting on tonight.

Stepping back she looked at herself in the mirror. The dress clung to her, not in the way some of the outfits the girls wear that go to the bars on the weekends, but in a way that made her feel slim and tiny. She looked slight, feminine even in the cashmere dress and wondered if maybe she shouldn't have dressed up at all. She pouted at herself, she hadn't dressed up, and she was trying a new style, as Samantha had put it. So, she packed up her stuff and took it out of the bathroom, dropping it all into one of the bags before she padded quietly out onto the balcony again. Leaving the door open she braced herself on the balcony railing, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply the wintry air of New York.

"You're going to catch a cold." Steve's voice startled her enough that she jumped as she whirled around. He leaned against the open door frame of the balcony's sliding glass door. He was wearing a clean button up shirt and brown slacks with bear feet and hair that was tousled from sleep.

"You startled me." She said a little breathless, her heart racing.

"Sorry about that." His voice was gruff; from either sleep or the smoke she wasn't sure which. "You should come inside; you don't want to get a hole in those..." He waved his hands at her cream colored knit stockings.

"Stockings." Zaria helped. She pushed away from the railing and joined him at the door.

"Stockings." Steve repeated as he stepped aside to let her in. He shut the sliding door and locked it again. "You look nice."

"Thanks." Zaria answered nervously. "Samantha picked it out. Well, I guess actually I picked it out when I looked at it but Samantha made me buy it and she picked out everything else that's supposed to go with it. And... I'm totally rambling." She finished, her cheeks flushing.

"It's alright."

She wrung her hands in the silence that followed before she turned around to look at Steve. She was almost shocked again by the closeness to him and his appearance. That clean-versus-rumpled look made her heart stutter. "I, uh..." She cleared her voice. "I wanted to thank you."

"For?"

"Everything really." She paced away from him towards the couch, running a finger over the plush backing. "For saving my life, for sticking with me, for offering me your haven as a place to stay. I mean, I don't really know what you're thinking, but you've done so much for me." She turned around, splaying her hands before she clasped them behind her back. "So I wanted to thank you for it all. I also wanted to know what you've been thinking this whole time. You don't need to be so stoic about it with me. I can handle a little bit of bluntness you know."

Steve stared at her, seemingly surprised by what she said before he sighed, placing a hand on his hip and running the other through his hair messing it up even more; she had to resist the urge to run her own fingers through it. After a moment he sunk into one of the wingback chairs, resting his forearms on his knees. Silence followed his movement causing her to feel uncomfortable sitting so she perched on the sofa.

"I never agreed with Director Fury about what he wanted to do with you and B- Winter Soldier." He finally said as he looked over at her. "But when your leader says something, you do it. Whether you agree or not. I didn't think it was smart to use you as bait when clearly the last meeting didn't go so well."

Zaria bit her lip, she wasn't sure if she was supposed to agree or not so she kept her mouth shut and let him continue.

"I still can't believe that that man that I saw there trying to... trying to kill you is the same man I knew for so long. I think if there's a way to help him we should do it. Killing him is not the solution to this and I can't agree with your driving need to do so, but I also don't know your history outside of what Director Fury told everyone." He pushed himself up and started pacing. "I don't understand why someone could blow up your apartment; I don't get your hatred for the law enforcement. I don't know why you didn't tell me the truth from the beginning. Were you just trying to use me or was there more? I don't know which is the real you, the one who seems to hate the world or the one that I knew before the kidnapping. Why do you have to be so adamant about things being the way you see it versus the way Director Fury sees it or even the way it is? Why does no one want to believe that you're really not working for y- for Winter Soldier. Nobody seems to trust anyone and no one cares what anyone else thinks. This isn't working, it' can't keep going on like this!"

Zaria watched him pace and vent as she sat silently on the couch. She stood slowly and moved to the side as she wasn't sure if it were better for her to stand or to sit, even though he didn't appear to be paying attention to her anymore.

Steve noticed she moved and stopped pacing as if her movement made him aware of his own. He looked frustrated, flustered by everything he was ranting about. "I just don't un-"

Zaria cut him off as she all but jumped at him, pressing her lips onto his. She had no answers for his questions. No way of helping him deal with all of this confusion. So, she did what she could, she gave him a way to escape it. She had her hands on his chest, as she held her body at that moment just before falling against him from chest to legs.

He was stiff, surprised by what she had just done, and there was a moment where she wondered if he would push her away, but finally he softened. His lips melded to hers as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her that last inch where they were flush against each other. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she all but melted into him. This wasn't just an escape for him; this was an escape for her. All the emotions, the tensions, everything boiled to a head and bubbled over in the physical need to touch him. One of his hands tangled in her hair, the other held her waist tight against him and she tried not to moan, but she wasn't sure if she was successful as the feeling of him holding her so close was more amazing than anything she had felt in years; maybe even her lifetime. Hesitantly she run her tongue against his lips, wanting more, hoping for more, and when he parted his lips for her, she was ecstatic.

She was up on her toes, trying to delve deeper, their tongues dancing, clashing, with each other as they explored each other. Steve made a noise in the back of his throat before he pulled his hand from her hair, moved his arm to cup her backside, and hoisted her up, her legs around his hips, their lips still attached. It was more intimate now, her dress pooling around her hips, leaving her lower half all but bare and pressed into his hips. His belt buckle dug into her thigh and she shifted her weight, freezing almost instantly when she settled up against a very obvious bugle. Her mind started working again as she realized what was happening. Did she want to go that far? Did she want to push the boundaries of their fragile relationship? Everything in her screamed for more, cried out for that completion before total release, but what about Steve? What would it do to Steve if they left it up to the more animalistic hunger that was driving them. Would he allow himself to give in to that base need that she knew he felt just as much as her?

Slowly, unwillingly, she pulled her lips away from his. They were nearly panting, breathless from the driving need for more and the wonderful exhilaration that was coursing through them. She stared into his eyes, heavy with desire, and struggled to form the words she needed to say.

"Steve..." His name ended in a moan as his lips brushed across her neck. He was distracting her, maybe not on purpose, but suddenly she couldn't think of what was so important to say to him. The sensation of his lips on her skin washed all thoughts from her head.

"Zaria..." He rumbled against her collarbone in response. His lips found hers again and she was lost in the taste that was all him. He held her tightly, keeping her tight against him as he suddenly began navigating the living room, down the hall, opening a door, stepping inside and kicking the door shut behind him.

She was only partially aware of the fact that they were in his bedroom now. It wasn't until he climbed on the bed and laid her down gently, his weight settling against her, pressing her body down into the bed. Hips to hips, chest to chest, they were as close as they could get without the removal of clothing. Tugging, she pulled his shirt from his pants and ran her fingers up and under, shuddering at the feeling of his skin against her palms, but it wasn't enough, so she undid the buttons and stripped him on it.

Steve pulled back far enough to pull the tie on her dress as his hands snaked up under it to push it up her body. She lifted her hips to let the dress past and his palms brushed the bare skin of her sides. He lifted her up, breaking their contact to pull the dress from her body before he dropped it to the side. He laid her back on the bed as he moved down the bed, his hands skimming her skin, before they stopped on her stockings. His eyes caught hers as his fingers slipped around the hem of the stockings and slowly rolled them down. She shivered under the intensity of his gaze, biting her lip at the sensation of his knuckles brushing down her legs. He moved to the side as he finally freed her legs from her knit stockings and gazed down at her. Suddenly she was nervous, laid nearly bare before him, letting him see all her imperfections and scars, it made her feel like she wanted to cover up again.

"You're beautiful." He murmured as he undid his belt and shucked his pants before he moved up to her, laying on his side to run his fingers over her bare skin, her muscles twitched as he touched more sensitive spots. Desire burned in his eyes and he was suddenly on top of her again, his lips crushing hers. He pulled her hips flush against his as he gently lifted her up and unhooked her bra. Now they were bare chest to bare chest, this light dusting of golden chest hair scraped her sensitive nipples lightly in a pleasurable way causing her to moan softly against his lips. She rocked her hips against his almost unconsciously and he groaned sending pleasant shivers through her body, tightening things low in her belly.

Suddenly she needed more, now, fast, and as much as she wanted to explore everything there was about him she knew that if she didn't have that completion, that deep pulsating satisfaction that would only come from a full merging of two bodies. So she took control, changing the kiss to something more primal, as she shifted her weight and pushed Steve back onto the bed. She pulled her lips from his for a moment as she pulled her panties off and carefully removed his boxers. Her lips were back on his before he could process what was happening as she settled her weight to either side of his body.

Then he was there, everything that made him male poised at the point where if she just settled her weight into his hips he would be flush inside her. She needed it, craved it, desired it, and wanted it more than she had wanted, desired, needed, craved anything else before, but her mind roared back at her. She couldn't do this to him, not if it might make him regret it later, so with great pains she held herself from that last moment, that last drive, and pulled her lips from his.

"You can tell me no." She whispered breathlessly. "You can tell me to stop. We don't have to do this if this wasn't what you wanted."

Instead of answering he put his hands on her hips and thrust into her, sheathing himself deep inside her body in one full, hard movement and she cried out in ecstasy. Her body convulsed around him as if it were having a mini orgasm, making her realize how long it had been since she had a true release, a true melding of bodies in that moment of pure joy, and she wondered how long she would last before she lost herself to the pure, raw, animalistic ecstasy that this moment was giving her. "If there was any doubt in my mind I would have stopped." His voice was gruff against her ear.

"Then let me show you what I want." She answered as she nipped his ear and moved her hips against his.

It wasn't long just as she knew it would be, he was just so filling, he thrust so deep, and her body had wanted him for longer than she was aware of; she was sure it wouldn't be long for him either as there was clearly something driving their need higher than she had ever felt it go before. His hands held her hips, rocking her against him as she came down and their hips met. He groaned, pulling her down tight as he swelled and filled her more than she ever thought he could.

"Zaria." His voice was gruff with need as he lifted her off and thrust in as deep as he could go, deeper than he had before, to the point where he butted up against the end of her, in a moment of release. She cried out in both pain and pure rapture, the world all but shattering around her as she herself rode a release that was better than anything she had had before.

She fell against him, breathing heavily as the tremors subsided. He held her to him as they enjoyed the moment. They laid there silently, resting as they struggled to bring the world back to normal. He kissed her forehead before he rolled her over, laying her gently beneath him, pulling himself from her body slowly; she shuddered.

"This time." He murmured. "I want to take it slower."


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: I am SO sorry this took so long! Work has just been taking it out of me and I've been working on an actual fiction story that I want to write. **

**This chapter isn't one of my best, I had to re-watch Captain America and Avengers again just to get back in the swing of things since I have not really enjoyed the writing for the last two chapters (they were both scrapped several times before I found something I could be somewhat okay with).**

**I hope that after this I will get back into enjoying it again because I'm really looking forward to things that come after this.**

**Sorry!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Zaria woke with moonlight streaming through the thin curtains. She had been sleeping so soundly for the first time in a long time, and wasn't sure what woke her, and then Steve twitched. It wasn't so much a twitch as his muscles tightened as if they all spasmed at once. She sat up and gazed down at him, concerned that he was still injured from the fire earlier. She touched him gently, his muscles twitched under her fingers and he groaned. Suddenly he jerked up, sitting in a rush, as his fingers wrapped around her neck and squeezed.

"Steve," she wheezed as she struggled not to fight him. "It's okay, it's just me."

"Peggy...?" Steve's half lidded, sleep covered eyes, stared at Zaria, unfocused. He wasn't there in the bed with her, he was somewhere far away. Pain lanced through Zaria's heart at the sound of this other woman's name, a pain that had nothing to do with any physical harm.

"You're hurting me." She answered instead of saying her name. Steve's hands loosened slowly.

"I'm so sorry." He murmured in sleep. "I'm so sorry I missed our date."

"Go back to sleep Steve." Zaria murmured her voice as soft as she could get it without revealing the burning pain inside her. "Everything will be alright in the morning."

Steve lay down in the bed; his eyes closed again, his arms around Zaria. "Peggy..." The name came out like a sigh of a lover, a sound that she had never heard her name spoken in such a way from anyone before.

It wasn't long before his breathing was deep and even again. Zaria carefully extracted herself from his grip before she slipped from the bedroom, shutting the door silently. Standing there in the hall she sighed heavily as she tried to figure out what she should do now. As she stood there, she realized she smelled of sex and Steve, which made her think of what they had shared just hours earlier. She felt sick and wanted nothing more than to get the scent of sex and male off her of her as fast as she could, but she wasn't sure if a shower would wake Steve up.

After a moment she figured out what she was going to do. Padding over to the kitchen, she spotted the land phone and picked it up. Pursing her lips she realized she didn't know the number to dial down to the doorman. Hesitantly she hit the zero key and waited.

"This is Marius." A young male's voice answered almost instantly.

"Marius, hi." Zaria breathed. "I was wondering if you could tell me if there is any gym around here that's open right now."

"You want to go work out at three in the morning?" Marius asked. He must be new at the job, she was sure most doormen wouldn't actually ask why she wanted the information she asked for.

"What can I say, I'm an earlier starter." She answered lightly.

"Well give me just a moment and I'll see what I can find." He mumbled as she heard him tapping away. She wondered if there was a registry that had all the weird information people might request at all hours of the day. "Ah here's one. It's not too far and it says they're open twenty-four hours. Shall I call you a cab?"

"No need, just have the directions for me when I come down." She answered, hanging up before he could protest or question her further. Quickly she backtracked to the bathroom and used the cloth she had earlier to rinse herself off so the smell wasn't as strong when she passed the doorman downstairs. In the living room she dug around until she found some workout clothing that she had all but demanded Samantha let her get and pulled them on before heading to the door. She stopped, groaned, turned around, and headed back to the pile of bangs that belonged to her, where she fished out the purse Samantha had gotten her, the cellphone that she still hadn't figured out, the wallet that had the money and card she had been loaned and the spare key to the apartment. With all in hand she slipped out of the apartment silently, locking the door behind her as she went.

It was weird entering into a private hallway that opened only to Steve's apartment. She was so use to the sounds of other people on her floor that it just didn't seem right here. The elevator arrived quickly, something she also wasn't use to ask she only had stairs back home, and descended in a quiet hum. Arriving in the foyer made Zaria feel underdressed for such a nice apartment building. She even considered running back up the elevator and just using Steve's shower so she could avoid walking through the central causeway, but the young sleepy-eyed boy behind the desk caught her attention, so, instead of skulking away like she wanted to, she straightened her spine and made her way over to the boy.

"Hi, I called-" She started.

"About the gym right?" The boy, Marius, finished quickly. "I figured."

She considered responding but instead just stared at him expectantly.

"Oh!" He said finally, flushing slightly. "Here are the directions to the gym. Are you sure you don't want me to call you a cab?"

Zaria waved the boy off. "No, but if you could tell me if there's a convenience store that's open either around here or close to the gym, that would be great."

Marius looked at her incredulously. Clearly that was one they didn't get a lot. He opened his mouth to either say something or question her, but decided better of it and turned to the computer screen that had been displaying Facebook before he hid it quickly and began the database search.

A few minutes later, and several pieces of paper in hand, Zaria hunted down the convenience store to find some travel sized shampoo and conditioner along with a travel sized sponge, body wash, travel size deodorant, hair brush, toothbrush and toothpaste and a nice travel back to carry them all in before paying for it all and hitting the gym to blow off some steam.

The gym was one of those chain corporations that were open to the public at all god awful hours of the day. She paid the surcharge to use the gym for the day before running off to the lockers and stashing her stuff. Walking into the main area of the gym and seeing all the people made her wonder for a moment if this was really the best idea. She didn't want to be around people and she was sure she still smelled like Steve, so she turned on her heel, snatched her wallet out of her locker and hunted down the gym store.

"I need a swimsuit." Zaria stated as she entered the store and located the sales representative. "Something streamline."

With swimsuit in hand, an extremely expensive swimsuit that would have made her sick if it had been her money she was using, she changed in the lockers and found the pool.

To her surprise there was no one at the pool. She had the whole area to herself, just as she liked it. The chlorine would remove any remaining trace of the scent of Steve and it was an excellent way to distress without punching a hole in one of those boxing bags.

She flipped over for what felt like the hundredth time as she hit the end of the lane to swim the other direction when another person entered the pool. She stopped, standing up in the shallow end and pushed her hair from her face, panting slightly.

"Pools all yours." She muttered as she climbed out of the pool, snatched one of the towels from the large stack, and made her way back to the locker room.

At her locker she finagled her phone until the screen light up with the time; 4:30 a.m. She had been swimming for an hour, Steve would probably be waking up soon so it would be best to get back before he did. So she made her way into the locker room, got her stuff from the locker, found the showers, washed, and was out of the gym before the clock read 5 a.m.

At the apartment Marius had been relieved by an older, more proper looking doorman who greeted her with scrutinizing eyes as she quickly made her way through the lobby and onto the elevator. As the elevator began to ascend Zaria's nerves suddenly began to make her jittery as she remembered the incident earlier with Steve

"_Peggy..." _

"_I'm so sorry..."  
_

"I'm not a replacement..." She growled to the mirrored version of herself. The reflective gold walls distorted her features as she stared at it. "I'm not Peggy..."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the short hallway that led to Steve's door. With key in hand she entered the swank, impersonal apartment where she dumped her stuff unceremoniously in the pile of her stuff that had taken over the corner of the large living room before routing around in the kitchen for a coffee pot and coffee, which she found still in its box and whole beans frozen in the freezer. Groaning, she then hunted down a grinder, ground the beans, set up the coffee machine, and began brewing something strong for her nerves.

With Coffee in hand she opened the door to the balcony and stepped out. The sky was changing from the rich dark colors to the muted grays and whites of dawn, so, with her hands wrapped around the warm cup to stave off the chill of winter in the city, she waited for the sun to rise as she considered what she was supposed to do. Did she just forget about that other girl Steve had mentioned, or did she ask him about it? Did she want to know the answer if she did ask?

If anyone had asked she would tell them it didn't hurt that he was clearly in love with someone else, but the truth of the matter was that it lanced through her heart like a cold sharp blade that left fragments of ice behind to grown and fracture the heart even more. She could handle physical pain, but pain of the heart was something that she just couldn't deal with. She had had enough of it after her grandmother passed, but somehow she just couldn't avoid it.

The sliding glass door open nearly silently behind her as Steve stepped out onto the balcony with her. He stood there, silently, as they watched the sun sparkle off the glass buildings as it rose for the day.

"I was worried when I woke up and didn't see you in bed." Steve finally said after the moment of silence. "But then I smelled the coffee and figured you would be out here."

"Yeah, I guess I'm just not use to sleeping all night because of my work schedules." Zaria lied.

"You know there's a balcony off the bedroom too. You get a view of Central Park."

"I'll have to do that one next time."

Silence descended upon the couple again as the sun rose higher and the people down below began to head off to their perspective jobs.

"Is there something bothering you?" Steve asked as the silence began to get too heavy.

Zaria turned around to face Steve as she hugged herself the best she could while still holding onto her cup of coffee she had yet to actually drink. She turned her face away from him as she thought about how she wanted to bring it up.

"Who's Peggy...?" She asked as she slid her gaze to Steve's stunned face.

"Where did you hear that name...?" He finally choked out.

"From you," she moved her eyes away from his face again and down to her cooling coffee. "You said it in your sleep. You called me Peggy. So I just wanted to know who she was."

The silence that followed was deafening. After sometime it seemed clear to Zaria that Steve wasn't going to answer her question.

"You don't need to tell me. I just -"

"No, it's alright." Steve interjected. "You know that I am over seventy years older than I appear. She was someone very special to me back in World War II."

"You loved her, didn't you?"

Steve opened his mouth then shut it after a moment, pursing his lips as he did.

Zaria nodded quietly. "Right." She murmured as she slipped past him and entered the house. She sat her cold coffee cup on the kitchen island before splaying her hands out on either side.

The balcony door slid shut and soft footsteps followed as Steve approached. Chilled fingers brushed across Zaria's waist as he wrapped his arms around her gently, and pressed his cheek gently against her hair.

"But I also love you..." He murmured softly as he turned her around to face him. "Let me show you." His lips brushed her gently as he pulled her close to him.

She sighed and gave in to his touch. As her eyes closed a tear slipped between her lashes and fell gently across her cheek.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Steve propped himself up on his elbow to look down at Zaria as she slept next to him. It was sometime after noon but he wasn't really ready to get up and get going on the day. He wondered, as he watched her shoulders rise and fall as she breathed, what it was about her that made him fall in love with her. Part of him realized how similar she did look to Peggy, so much so that it caused him to think about whether or not he fell in love with her for that reason. He shook his head as he thought about it. Yes, she looked very similar to Peggy, but her personality was very different. Peggy was strong, straightforward, calm, and in control of the situation. Zaria was strong, yes, but she was also damaged, vengeance driven, distant, cold, lost, confusing and murky.

There was much about Zaria that Steve still didn't understand. Her past for instance was something that confused and concerned him. She had been a criminal. She was in juvenile detention several times with several other charges that had been brought up against her but had been dropped since there had not been enough evidence. There had also been so much death and loss in her life. There was no record of her mother except for on the birth certificate. Her father died when she was very young; shot by the Police by accident was the report. She ran away from home on multiple occasions leaving her only living relative, her grandmother, alone and wondering what had happened to her grandchild. She had a record at a military academy where she excelled in a multitude of subjects the least of which were hand-to-hand combat, history, and gymnastics, but she disappeared again right before graduation only to be brought up on several charges of vandalism and others he didn't wish to think about. It explained how she had a job at a museum that was over an hour subway ride from her house, but not much more.

If he had known everything he knew about her now, would he have stayed? Would he have let himself move on? Fall in love? If he was truly honest with himself he was fairly sure he wouldn't have, but there was no way around it now. The woman who was sleeping in his bed had found her way into his heart without him realizing it and by the time he learned the terrible truth about her it was already too late. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing that he found out about her past until after, or if it wasn't. At this point he was trying to let go of the hurt and betrayal he felt when he found out the truth as he realized it was probably something she never wanted to talk about with anyone. She had been trying to be a good person since then and he shouldn't have judged her on it as harshly as he had.

In his musings Zaria had shifted, causing her tangled hair to fall across her face. He smiled and gently moved it back, tucking it behind her ear, as she studied her face. Truthfully she looked nothing like Peggy; her features were more angular, more sharply defined than that of Peggy's. The only real similarity that they shared was their wavy brown hair and even then their hair color was different, Zaria's being darker and thicker than that of Peggy's.

The phone rang, jarring him back to reality. Zaria groaned and rolled over as he debated on just letting it ring until voicemail picked it up.

"What time is it?" Zaria grumbled as she sat up, pulling the covers up to cover her chest.

"It's a little after noon I think." Steve answered.

"Holy crap!" Zaria cried as she scrambled out of bed and began hunting down her clothing. "I'm so late for work!"

Steve chuckled. "You don't have work. You still have some time off, especially after what happened yesterday."

Zaria stopped her underwear halfway up her legs as she turned to look at Steve. "I totally forgot..."

The phone clicked over to voicemail and a gruff sounding male voice echoed through the apartment. It was the police calling, asking if Zaria would come in to give them a few more details of the day before. She glared in the general direction the voice from the answering machine was coming from as she pulled her clothing on a little more roughly than she meant to.

"I wonder if anyone's found me an attorney." Zaria muttered as she put her workout clothing back on.

Steve came around the bed finishing the last few buttons on his shirt. "I'm sure they have." He tucked in his shirt as he ran a belt through the belt loops. "You really don't like the police do you?"

Zaria scowled as she opened the bedroom door and walked out, heading to her clothing where the cashmere dress she had worn yesterday was laying spread out over her bags of clothing. "I've never had a good experience with them." She sighed as she picked up the dress and stockings.

"They're just doing their job. They're upholding the law."

Zaria gritted her teeth as she tried to calm herself. It wasn't Steve's fault, he didn't understand. "Their 'job' killed my father. Their "upholding" the law put me in jail instead the person who should have been there. I have never met a cop who cares about the truth over just finishing a case."

"I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure they had valid reasons for what they did. I read the reports on the incident for your father and the one for you -"

"And I'm sure they said my father's death was "an accident by a stray police bullet in a shootout against a volatile criminal". Or that I did it because they had someone give testimony against me. I'll bet you didn't know that testimony was all fabricated by the guy who actually did the crime and my state appointed attorney did nothing to defend me." Her hand was tight around the cashmere dress bunching it up. Sighing she laid the dress out on the couch and examined the wrinkles she had just put into the peacock blue colored fabric. "Look, I'm not going to argue this with you. You look at the police one way, and I see them in a different way. I don't think we'll really ever have the same viewpoint on this subject matter so there isn't much point in trying."

They stood there silently before Steve came over to her. He ran his fingers over her arms softly before he placed his cheek on her hair. "I'm sorry if I asked something you didn't want to talk about. I'm just trying to understand you more. I don't know anything about you really."

"You know a lot about me." Zaria answered.

"I've seen the files; I don't know it from your side."

Zaria opened her mouth to answer, but an odd chirping noise filled the apartment. "What is that god awful sound?" She snapped as she stepped away from Steve.

"I believe that's your cell phone."

"My what? Crap!" Zaria dove at the couch where the phone seemed to have moved to before she scrunched up her nose and tried to figure out how to answer it.

"Hello...?" She questioned as she stuck the thing to her ear after she smashed the green button.

"Is this Ms. Barnes?" An unfamiliar male voice asked.

"Uh... Yes, this is Zaria Barnes. Who is this?"

"My name is Mr. Ford. Benjamin Ford. I was told by Mr. Stark that you were in need of an attorney."

"Ah, yes. Hi Mr. Ford. You have perfect timing, I just got a call from the police department and they would like me to come in to speak with them."

"Well then if you could tell Mr. Rogers' doorman to allow me through to the apartment I would gladly speak with you at that time."

Zaria's head whipped around. "He's in the lobby." She said to Steve.

Steve nodded and went to the door, slipping on a pair of loafers before walking out the door.

"He's on his way down to you." Zaria said to the phone.

"Excellent, then I will see you once I'm there." He hung up.

Zaria sighed as she leaned back on the couch before she caught a look of herself in the mirror. Grimacing at the sex tousled hair she jumped up and rummaged the bags until she found a hair brush and began to remove all evidence of sex hair until she realized that really wasn't going to help. In the end she snagged her toiletries and ran to the bathroom, shutting the bedroom door before rushing in just as the door to the apartment opened.

Turning the water on quickly she stripped and hopped in, nearly yelping as the icy water hit her skin. She didn't wait for it to warm up though as she was used to cold showers, she just stuck her head under the water quickly and pulled back so she could shampoo her hair. Pulling the loofah out of her bag and some citrus scented soap she set to cleaning herself thoroughly, scrubbing to the point where her skin turned pink from the abuse. She slipped back under the now warming water and rinsed her hair and skin. When the suds were finally gone she quickly rubbed a conditioner into her hair and cleaned the loofah out. Lastly, she rinsed the conditioner from her hair as she stepped out and grabbed one of the burgundy colored towels from the wall to dry off. Dressing quickly she toweled her hair as dry as she could get it and ran a comb through it all before she exited the bathroom.

"Ah Ms. Barnes. I'm sorry if I came at a bad time." The man she could only assume was Benjamin Ford said as she came into the living room.

"It's not a problem, just wanted to not smell like a burning building." Zaria lied easily. She eyed the man quickly, taking in his Dolce and Gabbana black suit that probably cost her more than she could make in a month along with the shoes and watch that was the month's rent on Steve's apartment. She screamed money, tasteful, hard to miss money, but money all the same.

"I don't really have the money to afford a lawyer of your caliber." she said as she sat down on the couch next to Steve.

"It's not a problem; it's been taken care of." Benjamin Ford said as he sat himself elegantly in one of the wingback chairs. He sat an iPad on his lap and pulled out a stylus. "Now Ms. Barnes-"

"Please, it's just Zaria." Zaria said as she tried not to grind her teeth.

"Alright, Zaria, I have gone over the report the police have and I wanted to clarify some of it with you. We should all be on the same page. Is this alright to go over with Mr. Rogers here?"

"He was there too, so yes, it's fine to go over it all with him here as well."

"Ah..." Benjamin Ford leaned back in the chair and wrote something on his iPad. "So it would be best if I was also Mr. Rogers's attorney as he will most likely need one as well."

"I don't know about that." Steve answered. "I have no problem telling the police everything I know. I have nothing to hide."

"Be that as it may, you having nothing to hide does not mean it is not best for you have an attorney as well. It is just a precaution and it keeps the police from contacting you directly." His eyes were sharp when he looked up from his iPad. "Now, Zaria, let's start with you."


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: These chapters have been a little short but I've stopped when I felt the thought was completed and I didn't want to feel like the chapters were just running on and on with no forward momentum.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 14**

"So you're telling me that you were gone visiting some dying relative that you hadn't known anything about until just a few weeks ago and had no idea that someone rigged your apartment to explode when you returned?" The grizzled officer known as Jameson asked again.

Zaria opened her mouth to snap at the officer but her attorney got to it first.

"That is what my client said. Now, Officer Jameson if you're just going to ask the same questions over again my client and I are going to leave as you are wasting our time." Benjamin Ford said in a cool tone.

"You expect me to believe that crap and yet the same day your apartment explodes you have spent quite a lot of money on new clothing and are staying at a very nice apartment."

"The expenditures by my client were all paid by Mr. Rogers's employer and Mr. Rogers has graciously offered his home to my client as she finds a new place to stay."

"So you have no idea who could have wanted to blow up your apartment?"

"Actually I do." Zaria answered as she looked over at her attorney. He inclined his head and indicated for her to continue; it wasn't something he deemed necessary to keep from the cops apparently.

"And who would that be?" The cop sounded bored, as if he expected some random answer that he had no intention of following up on.

"My ex-boyfriend: James Rickshaw."

"Well that's very interesting because James Rickshaw is in the hospital right now. You wouldn't know anything about that now would you?"

Zaria's about hit the floor. She knew her grandfather was quick with his retribution but not that quick. "I don't know anything about that." She answered slowly.

"Mm sure. Where were you last night?"

"Are you interrogating my client on a different matter other than the one about her apartment?" Benjamin interjected.

"Well if she has nothing to hide..."

They were baiting her just like they always did. "No, I have nothing to hide." She snapped. "I was at Steve's apartment all night long."

"Can anyone verify?"

"Yeah, Steve can."

"Anyone other than the other witness in the incident of your apartment?"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Zaria muttered as she glared at the cop. "The doorman. There's only one entrance at that apartment and I would have to pass right by the doorman if I wanted to enter or exit the building. I'm done here."

"Agreed." Benjamin said as he stood in a smooth motion. "If you have any further questions for either Ms. Barnes or Mr. Rogers you can contact me." He handed the officer his business card then left the building behind Zaria.

They left the precinct in Benjamin's lux car that was probably worth all her medical bills put together. This suddenly reminded her that she had not paid on them in a while.

"Can we stop by my old apartment?" She asked.

"Of course."

"Is something wrong?" Steve questioned.

"I haven't paid the medical bills since before... well for a while. I need to get my mail and I need to call them and find out about delaying the payment until I can work again."

They parked in front of her building where she ran up just as the mailman arrived.

"I'll take everything for apartment 628."

The mailman mumbled something before he pulled all the mail out for her and handed it to her.

"Thanks." She hopped back into the car and they sped off to Steve's apartment.

Ripping open the first bill she could find she read over it, paled, read over it again and scrambled to find her new cell phone.

"What is it?" Steve asked, concerned about the color draining from her cheeks.

Zaria didn't answer; instead she put the phone to her ear after dialing and waited for someone to pick up. "Hello? Yes I'm calling about my bill... Zaria Barnes... Z-A-R-I-A B-A-R-N-E-S... Yes I'll hold." Zaria tapped her foot nervously as she waited for someone to pick up.

"Yes, I'm still here." She answered quickly to the new voice on the phone. "Yes, I was calling about my bill, I saw that it was past due and I - what? Yes that's my account... No I- what? Are you sure you're looking at the right account? Yes it was for Dima Mosin... She's my grandmother... Yes that's all my information... You're sure? Okay I - Well Thank you... No I don't need anything else... Yes, thank you, goodbye."

"Is everything alright?" Steve asked, he was still concerned and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to handle the situation.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered. "Somebody made a mistake and I'm sure I'm going to get a letter in the mail about it soon, that's all."

"Made a mistake on what?"

"The medical bill for my grandmother's hospital was paid off. Paid in full. I didn't ask who paid for it; I didn't think they'd tell me. It's got to be a mistake."

"Director Fury might have paid them off." Steve helped.

"Mm..." Zaria commented as she noticed something, there was a car following them and had been since they had left her apartment. "Hey, Ben- Mr. Ford."

"Benjamin or Ben is fine. Whatever you prefer." He answered.

"Alright, well Ben, if you wouldn't mind letting us out. Anywhere is fine."

"We have not reached the apartment."

"I know that's fine." Zaria answered as she noticed the car make the same turn they just took. "It would be best if you at least let me out of the car."

"Are you sure about wanting me to let you out?"

"Yes, of course." Zaria answered.

"What is it?" Steve asked.

"I think I just want a walk." Zaria lied and hoped Steve wouldn't push it, at least until they were out of the car.

"It's alright Mr. Ford, I'll be with her." Steve said as he stared at Zaria for a moment longer.

"If you say so." The lawyer answered as he pulled into a covered garage parking and let his passengers out. "If I hear anything from the cops I will call you, just don't get into any more trouble than you're already in."

"We will stay out of trouble of course." Zaria answered as she waved the car away.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"We were being followed." Zaria answered as she made her way to the exit and waited. "It looks like they didn't notice we got out so they'll follow him back to his office and realize we got out, by then we will be long gone."

Steve pursed his lips. "Hey, let's go out and do something."

Zaria turned around to face him. "Go where? Do what?"

"I don't know, but we're out now and we're not too far away from Central Park. We can take a walk through there, maybe a rowboat on the lake. Or a carriage ride, or anything really." Steve shrugged slightly, wondering if she would go with him.

Zaria cocked her head to one side and stared at him. "Alright. Sure, let's go. Lead the way."

Steve smiled and gave her his arm, which she took graciously, and led the way to Central Park.

They walked through Central Park, finding a trail that seemed more secluded than the rest, and enjoyed each other's company in comfortable silence. They moved slowly, watching birds and the small animals scurry about in the branches and the ground. At a bench, they sat down and just stayed there for a long moment in silence.

"I don't..." Steve started, before stopping and sighing.

"It's fine." Zaria answered slowly. She was almost certain she knew the answer he was going to give her and she wasn't sure she really wanted to hear what he was actually saying.

"No, it's not and I don't really know how to fix it." Steve answered getting frustrated. He ran a hand through his hair causing her to have a visceral memory of doing the exact same thing early this morning; it made her shudder.

"Are you cold?" He asked as he shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it across her shoulders.

"Thank you." She wasn't really cold but the butter-soft leather was still warm from Steve's body heat and she just couldn't give it back yet.

He sighed again as he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he rested his chin on top of his clasped hands. "I don't think I'm ready to really talk about... about Peggy or anything else that happened to be in world war two, but I want you to understand something," he turned to look at her. "You are not a replacement, for anyone. My feelings for you are real and uniquely just for you. Not for any other reason."

Zaria flushed, dark red, as she was taken aback by what Steve had just told her. Suddenly she started giggling as she covered her face.

"I'm sorry; I'm not laughing at you." She gasped between giggles. "I just, I'm relieved I think."

"You... think you're relieved?" Steve questioned, confused by her statement.

"Yeah." Zaria smiled, wiping the corner of her eye as it had watered up in her laughing. "I didn't realize I was really concerned that I was just a replacement for some girl. I didn't know what you really thought about me and it was laugh or it was cry when I heard what you said."

Steve reached over and caught her face in both of his hands. He wiped the residual tears from her eyelashes as he gazed into her eyes. "I will do my best to never make you cry, all I ever want to see on your face is a smile."

Zaria blushed as she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, throwing her arms around his neck. His arms encircled her waist and held her tight, and for this moment, she felt that everything was good and right.


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: I'm just going to apologize now for everything that is going to happen soon as I'm sure it will upset/piss off/sadden/anger/etc. some of the readers out there. The story kinda took on a life of its own and this is what happens when it does that.**

**I promise everything is going to turn out great in the ending so please bear with me!**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

"It's been weeks and we have heard nothing about the Winter Soldier. No movements, no hint on his whereabouts, no plans he might have: nothing." Fury mused as he paced at the head of the table he had gathered his Avengers team.

Zaria was sitting next to Steve at about as far away from Fury as she could get and still be sitting at the table as she mulled over something in her head. "Has there been any political figurehead anywhere in the world that has been interfering with... anything?"

Fury turned his attention to her as he put his hands on the back of the chair he should have been sitting in. "What do you mean?"

"Has there been any big political pushes for anything that might affect the country or world at large?"

Fury thought for a moment, standing back and crossing his arms over his chest. "Not something as dramatic that would fit your qualifications, why?"

"Well Russia used him as a political assassin, taking out targets that would affect things they didn't agree with. Well not Russia as a whole, but whatever group that has been using him would do so, which is why he isn't just used in Russia or its allies, he's been everywhere." Zaria sat forward as she thought about the papers she had seen from her grandmother. "In the papers my Bubulya brought over from Russia there was something about how he was... unstable. I think that's the best English translation of the word."

"What does that mean?"

Zaria pursed her lips. "It's been a long time since I looked at the document or translated them to English for any reason but if I remember correctly the notes from the scientists made a passing reference that his mind was... unstable? Not quite right, I guess. The longer he was out in the field the more he seemed inclined to... disobey orders. He would be... forgetful or confused. So when he was done with a mission he would be... put back to sleep."

"Put back to sleep..." Fury echoed. "What does that mean?"

Zaria stared at the table her eyes moving back and forth as if she was reading and her hands moved as if she were shuffling papers that weren't there.

"Zaria." Fury demanded.

"I think she's reading." Steve answered for her.

"I think..." Zaria started as she blinked rapidly and pressed the palm of her hand to her forehead. "Some of the pages are personal notes of the scientists that worked with and on the Winter Soldier and they make reference to cryostasis. I think they freeze him when he's not out assassinating someone for them."

"Now why would they do that?"

"He's as old as Steve." Zaria answered honestly, shooting Steve an apologetic look. "If he wasn't basically kept on ice he would have been retired and possibly have passed on by now."

"But that doesn't explain the "unstable" part of their notations. Also, these documents sound far too important not to be in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I would like to have them in our hands for review."

Zaria sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. "No."

Fury stared at her. "No?"

"You heard me."

"And why not?"

"First, they're in Russian, and before you try to tell me that you have an Agent who speaks Russian, her original family name is on the documents so I would rather not let her touch them mostly as a safety precaution seeing as my grandmother risked her life to get them out of Russia. No offense to Agent Romanoff. Also, my grandmother was the one to get them out of Russia and they will stay with the rest of her stuff."

"And is this is not a request?"

"Then I will gladly tell you to kiss my ass and go to hell with a sweet smile on my face as they are not going anywhere. My grandmother didn't give them to your government when she came over I will not go against her wishes and give them to you now. It's not like I'm going to sell them or anything. Besides, how do you even know I still have them? My apartment did blow up and I have been told there was nothing salvageable from the explosion."

Fury glared at her, but as he had no proof that she still did have the documents he really wasn't able to argue with her at this time. "So are you telling me he's gone until they decide to use him again?"

"Pretty much." Zaria answered as she pursed her lips and tried to think about the documents again. "I don't have a name... Wait... I do have a name. A General Vasily Karpov and his protégé Aleksander Lukin... They were in command of the Winter Soldier project."

"I recognize those names from when I was in Russia." Natasha spoke up.

"What do you know about them?" Fury asked as he turned his attention to Natasha.

"General Karpov is dead now and General Lukin went rogue with everything he was working on when the USSR collapsed. Your missing Winter Soldier is probably in his possession and probably not under direct command of Russia anymore."

"So he could be anywhere, working for anyone."

"It's got to be for someone who can supply a cryostasis chamber without anyone looking twice. Also," Zaria paused as she tried to think of the notes she had. "I think... I don't think whatever they did to him to either make him forget or keep him from remembering his life before Russia was fully successful. I may have translated it wrong, but I think he was "unstable" because the longer he was free the more he would remember and the more the two conflicting information would take its toll on his mind."

"So if we get him away long enough he might remember everything?" Steve asked, trying not to sound hopeful.

"It's plausible," Zaria admitted as she chewed on her lip. "But it's more likely that if he either doesn't go back in cryostasis or at least get extreme medical help as soon as possible it will just deteriorate his mind to the point where there would be no help for him."

Steve looked almost crestfallen at the information, though he tried hard to hide it. She slid her hand under the table and took his, squeezing gently. She knew how much his friend meant to him even if she would rather see the man dead.

We'll look into what we can do." Fury said after a moment of contemplation. "If we could save him he would make a good ally. He may even be able to give us valuable information. Barton, Romanoff, see about finding any information you can about this Lukin. Find out where he might be hiding, who he might be working for; anything that will give us a clue for his next attack. Everyone else you're dismissed until we have more information."

Zaria released Steve's hand as she turned her chair and stepped away from the table. "I'll join you in the hangar in a moment." She said to Steve as she disappeared down one of the many hallways on the Helicarrier.

Finding an empty sleeping quarter she slipped in and locked the door quickly before walking into the attached bathroom. Shutting the door to the bathroom and locking it as well she reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic wrapped item: a pregnancy test.

"I can't believe I'm doing this..." She muttered as she pulled open the applicator, stuffed the trash into the bin after wrapping it up in some toilet paper, popped off the applicator's cap and proceeded to use the test. Flushing the toilet she put the cap back on, made sure the thing was clean and sat it on the sink as she washed her hands. She watched the blinking hourglass as she counted the time down to the two minutes the test said it would need to give her an answer. She started pacing halfway through the first minute.

"This is so stupid." She growled to herself as she scratched her head. "I'm just overreacting, just because I'm late doesn't mean I'm -" The test's screen flipped over to the answer and she hastily picked it up to look at it.

"Pregnant..." She finished as the air whooshed out of her. "I'm pregnant... Oh boy..."

She paced the bathroom again as she considered her options. She didn't have to tell him, she could just go to a clinic and he would never be the wiser, but that didn't seem right or fair to her. Things were going well between the two. He had her stay with him instead of finding a new place. She even brought over her grandmother's desk from the museum along with her little project so that no one else could make the same conclusions she had about him. She was happy with him, why wouldn't she want to keep the baby if she was really pregnant.

She stopped, pursing her lips as she looked at the test again. It could be a false positive she realized. Did she tell Steve she was pregnant now or wait until she had a real test to find out for sure? Puffing up her cheeks she stood there staring at the test until she finally came up with a conclusion; she'd just tell him. She'd tell him that the store bought test came back positive and it's likely she was pregnant but that they could find out for sure with an actual test from a doctor if he wanted to be thoroughly sure.

With her decision made she unlocked the bathroom, then the living quarters and headed down to the hangar where Steve would be waiting for her. He had been waiting for quite some time so she all but jogged down the halls to the hangar where she turned a corner and spotted him a ways down.

"St-"

"Steve!" An unfamiliar female voice called out to Steve.

Zaria came to a halt and hide behind the corner she had just come around, unsure as to why she had such a reaction but not able to shake the feeling that it was better if she just waited.

A petite brunette with bright red lipstick came into view not too far away from where Steve stood. She was curvy, small, but carried herself as if she were used to being in charge and telling people what to do; she also had that old time vibe that Steve seemed to carry with him

"Peggy?" Steve questioned in stunned awe of the woman before him. The woman's name was like a knife in Zaria's chest.

"It's me."

"Peggy." Her name left Steve's lips in a way that Zaria's name still had never come across. He closed the distance between them, wrapped her up in his arms and kissed her passionately.

Zaria covered her mouth as she tried not to make a sound. She fell back against the wall out of sight, her hand clutched tightly around her pregnancy test, as tears burned her eyes only to come face to face with Tony Stark.

"Tony!" She yelped. "What, what are you still doing here?"

"Same thing you are." He answered as he noticed the white stick in her hand. "What is that?"

"It's nothing." Zaria answered hastily as she tried to shove it into her pocket.

"Really now?" Tony responded curiously as he snatched it out of her hand and looked it over.

"Crap, no Tony, don't!" Zaria snapped as she tried to yank it back but he held it just out of reach.

"Oh, naughty girl." Tony teased. "Barely living with Steve and already pregnant. I think I'll take this over to him and-"

Zaria caught his arm just as he looked around the corner. "Please, don't." She pleaded.

"Whoa." Tony said in surprise. "Who's that brunette all over Steve?"

Instead of answering she pulled him back around the corner. "You will tell no one, do you hear me? No one. And you will owe me favors for reading that. Or so help me I will show you what I can do with a toothpick and your life support machine."

Tony gave her an odd look. "JARVIS, what can she do with a toothpick and the arc reactor?"

"Technically nothing, sir." Jarvis answered. "But I will look into any and all possibilities of damage done to the arc reactor with a toothpick."

"In the meantime," Zaria started as she snatched the test back from Tony as he was distracted with JARVIS. "You can help me get off this ship and to the apartment all without Steve knowing. You can also find out a way to keep him here for several hours, although I don't think that one will be as difficult."

"And why would I do that?"

"Toothpick. Arc Reactor." Zaria answered darkly. "And above all, you will tell no one, and I do mean no one, that I am pregnant. Do I make myself clear?"

Tony studied Zaria's face for a long moment making Zaria wonder if he would go against what she asked and just go out there and tell Steve. Her heart ached horribly and her eyes hurt from the struggle not to blink, not to cry. Peggy's voice echoed through the hangar up to them, making the pain more sharp, more pronounced in Zaria's chest and she wondered if Tony could see the pain she was in.

"Alright," he finally said. "Yeah I'll take you to the apartment and I won't tell Cap. Go wait over by where I park my suit, I'll just go see if I can find someone who could distract Steve for the rest of the day."

"Thank you..." Zaria choked as she turned away from him, the relief was overwhelming.

"Hey." Tony caught her arm though she didn't turn around, didn't face him, she stopped. "I'll be there in five." He finally said as he let go of her arm and left.

True to his word, five minutes later found Zaria clinging to Tony's neck as he flew himself and her off the Helicarrier's deck and towards New York. Out over the ocean Zaria dug into her pocket and pulled out the pregnancy test, looked it over once, then threw it down into the blue waters far below them.

Tony landed in front of Steve's apartment placing Zaria down gently before taking off quickly as the general populace took notice that he had shown up. She ducked inside before anyone had a chance to notice her face or ask her any questions; the doorman was staring at her, mouth agape.

"Close it," Zaria snapped as she made her way to the elevator. "And don't even ask."

She arrived at Steve's apartment, unlocked the door, and made her way inside before slamming the door, locking it, and sliding down to the ground; her knees pulled up to her chest. Her chest was tight, her heart ached, her eyes burned, but it all stemmed from something internal. No external wound could inflict so much pain upon her as she was feeling now. After long moments of silence she finally stood, went into the kitchen, picked up the phone and dialed the backline for the bar she used to work at hoping that today was a day that Joe was working.

"This is Joe." The man's gruff voice nearly made her cry when she heard it.

"Joe...?" Zaria's voice cracked and she had to stop speaking.

"Z?" Joe's voice sounded suddenly deeply concerned. "Z, honey what's wrong? What happened?"

"I uh..." She cleared her voice. "If I give you an address can you or someone come with a pickup truck and maybe some help?"

"Sure, anything you need, I'll round up Bob and Charlie. Charlie's got that big useless thing he's so proud of, that'll work right?"

Zaria laughed in spite of herself. "Yeah that'd be fine." She gave him the address to Steve's apartment.

"We'll be there soon. You're going to tell me what this is about, right?" Joe asked, coming off as that tough fatherly figure that would protect his kid no matter what.

"Soon." Zaria promised as she hung up.

Staring at the apartment she wondered what she should remove and what should stay. Although she hadn't been here long she had snuck in touches to the apartment that made it feel more lived in and less of a cold and staged apartment. Pops of bright colors covered the walls in paintings with throw pillows in colors pulled from the paintings to accent the couches. She thought about taking it, but decided against it since it made the apartment feel warmer, happier, and he would need that. So instead, she pulled all of her hair back and up into a hat she owned to keep it from getting onto anything before she went into the bedroom, ripped the sheets off the bed, threw them into the washing machine, started it, and went about pulling all of her clothing out of the closet.

With her clothing out and stuffed into bags from the kitchen she moved all of the spare hangars into the hall closet instead, leaving just a few in the main closet. She then went to the laundry basket and dumped the whole thing out onto the floor where she pulled her clothing out and put it into a separate bag from her clean clothing; leaving the rest on the floor for later inspection.

In the bathroom she removed any and all feminine products she had accumulated in there, tossing them into their own bag before she set about cleaning the entire bathroom from top to bottom to remove any and all traces of her, snagging the towels and tossing them into the washing machine after she had moved the sheets into the dryer. Finally she moved onto to Steve's clothing.

She was meticulous, scanning each of Steve's pieces of clothing for any of her hair and removing everything she found, putting all of the stuff that had her on it into the trash which she wrapped up and threw out into the garbage shoot. The only thing left was her grandmother's desk.

Standing there she stared at the desk, running her fingers over it gently as it was something she prized more than anything else she had ever owned was the desk her grandmother had bought. Opening the lid of the desk revealed her project that she had been working on at the museum she had been working at. It was set in neat piles chronicling everything she had been able to find on Steve Rogers the "actor". Carefully she moved them aside to clear off the workspace of the desk before she pulled open of the side draws, stuck her hand as far back as she could and flicked a little latch, popping the workspace free from the rest of the desk. Inside the space between the top of the workspace and the bottom of the desk sat a pile of yellowed paper in a manila folder.

She pulled it out and placed the workspace back onto the desk, sealing it completely before she sat her former project back inside and closed the desk. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should take her work as well, but finally deciding against it. Sighing she gazed at the desk, the item she loved most but the one she decided she would leave behind as she had nowhere to put it and Steve would keep it safe, if only because it was a desk as old as he was. The phone in the kitchen rang, jarring her back to the task at hand.

"Hello?" She answered nervously, hoping that it wasn't Steve who was calling.

"Is this Ms. Barnes?" An unfamiliar male voice questioned hesitantly.

"Depends on who's asking." She answered as she tried not to grind her teeth.

"This is Samuel, from the front desk. I have several men down here claiming their friends of yours that you requested to come over, is this true?"

Zaria nearly laughed. "Three large men who look like bikers?"

"Uh... Yes...?"

"Yep, that's them. They're family; they're allowed to come up." She hung up before the doorman could respond as she looked around the apartment one last time. Setting down the manila folder she went over to the dryer, pulling out the sheets and throwing the towels in to dry then spread out the sheets to inspect them for hair before she put it all back on the bed. Knocking on the door stopped her from remaking the bed. She ran over, unlocked it and pulled open.

"Hey Joe," she said with a faint smile. "Thanks for getting here so quickly."

"Anything for you, you know that. So what are we doing?"

Zaria pointed to the large pile of bags. "All that there is mine and needs to go with me since I'm leaving."

"Leavin'?" Bob piped up. "Why ya' leavin' such a nice place?"

"Shht, Bob." Charlie growled. "The girlie can do what she wants, ain't no difference if this place it nice or a hole in the wall."

Zaria smiled weakly. "It's fine Charlie. I'm just... I'm not ready to talk about it yet. I haven't even figured out where I'm going to stay until I can find a place that I can afford, if I can get a job again."

"Well shoot Z; you're always going to have a job at the bar." Joe said as he hefted some of the bags onto his shoulder. "And you can stay with me as long as you need."

Zaria smiled, tears sparkled in her eyes. "Thanks Joe. Although right now I don't think it's a good idea that I work at the bar, but I'll explain everything as soon as I can."

"Alright," Joe said with a nod and Zaria knew he would never push the subject if she wasn't ready to talk about it. "We'll just get this stuff downstairs and into the truck, you gonna need anything else?"

"No, Zaria said as she picked up the sheets and took them into the bedroom. "I'll be done in a moment."

The men left, carrying her bags that held everything she had left down to the truck they had waiting while she went into the bedroom and made up the bed as neatly as possible then hung the towels up in the bathroom, happy that she hadn't actually gone out and bought different colored towels as she had no way to make those disappear and still leave Steve with towels.

With the apartment cleared of everything that belonged to her except for her grandmother's desk, she turned to her cellphone and wiped the phone clean like she had been shown to do. So she set the phone on the counter next to the land like she looked around the room. The apartment felt nearly the same it did when she first walked in, as she was sure it should feel, but she also felt a sense of loss. She was leaving behind so much potential. It was possible that everything could be fixed, but she couldn't make Steve chose between the woman he clearly loved more than anything else in the world, and the woman who had a bad past. If Steve knew that she was possible pregnant he would do what was right, what he felt he needed to do, but that's not what she wanted. He wouldn't be happy like that, and she would definitely not be happy in that situation. So she made the choice for him. She removed herself completely from his home and would go so far as to even remove herself completely from all of it. No one would be able to find her, just as she needed it to be.

So, with her mind set and heart cold and heavy with pain she picked up her purse with destroyed credit cards inside and the manila fold with the information about her grandfather. The only thing left for her to do was leave.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

"I still don't fully understand why she'd just leave." Steve mumbled as he sat at the table on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier for another discussion.

Tony sat there staring holes into Steve's head.

"What?!" Steve nearly snapped, his irritation with Tony staring at him for such a long period of time getting the better of him.

"Oh I don't know," Tony said as he leaned back in his chair with a smug look of victory. "I'm pretty sure you can think of a few reasons she's gone."

"You seem to know a lot about what's going on with her, why don't you share with the group?" Director Fury asked as he walked up to the table.

Tony considered his options. "I don't know much honestly. She asked me to take her back to the apartment, I did, and I haven't seen her since." He said with a shrug.

"Nothing else?"

"Nope."

"Then why do I feel like you're hiding something?" Director Fury crossed his arms over his chest as he tried to stare Tony down.

"Because you're a spy. You're **the **spy, your secrets have secrets. Why would **I** hide anything from you?" Tony answered coyly. "Can't you find her? You guys can find anyone."

"We weren't tracking her because she was supposed to be here on the ship." Fury answered though it appeared almost painful for him to say so.

"Well it's not my fault you lost her, how was I supposed to know you weren't tracking her?" Tony waved around a little instrument from the lab he had been playing with. "If you want to ask anyone **why** she left you should be talking to the Cap over there. He should be able to come up with a bunch of reasons she's not here."

"What's that supposed to me?" Steve asked glaring at Tony.

"Oh come on, you can't be that naive. You really should have figured out the reason why already. I mean it's been four months she since disappeared."

"What are you trying to say?"

Tony hit the table with his fist before he pointed at Steve. "What were you doing the day she disappeared? Come on it can't be this hard!"

"I think you better fix your attitude."

"I think you better make me."

"Put on the suit and we'll go a few rounds."

"Boys!" Peggy's voice interrupted their squabbling. "I don't know who this person is everyone on this ship is so worried about but clearly she's important enough to rile everyone up."

"I think that would be my fault." Agent Hill said as she piped in from near Fury. The tough brunette held out a folder. "I hadn't had a chance to catch you up to this current situation as I tried to catch you up with all current events. That would be my mistake Director Fury."

"It's understandable." Fury responded. "The girl in question is Zaria Barnes. She has direct relations to a known political assassin who has, on one occasion, tried to have her recruited or killed. The issue at hand is that she is in control of valuable information about the man that we would rather have in our hands than in anyone else's."

"Then why didn't you just confiscate the information from her?" Peggy asked.

"It's not that simple. All of that valuable information is in her head. The location to the paper files is unknown as on an incident almost five months ago that destroyed her apartment, so she was our only link to that information."

"I don't understand what's so important about this information coming from her. I'm sure you could easily find the information on your own with a network this large."

"Finding that information again is highly improbable."

"Why?"

"All information pertaining to that subject has either been lost, destroyed or is still in enemy hands. The trails to follow went cold when the USSR fell."

"Russia...? She has information on old Soviet Russia?"

"More than that."

"What more could there be?"

"Peggy," Steve stated quietly. "The guy they're trying to find is Bucky. Zaria is his granddaughter."

"Bucky? But Bucky died." Peggy answered, confused.

"Apparently not." Fury answered as he leaned on the back of his chair. "His body was taken into Russia and he was used in their attempts to create a Super Soldier like Rogers. Zaria was our only connection to both the information and the man in question. At this point we don't even know if she's alive or dead or worse."

"Then how do we find out?"

"We have to find her." Steve answered.

"This brings us back to my original question. What were you doing the day she disappeared Cap?" Tony asked darkly.

"I don't see what this has to do with anything at all." Steve retorted.

"If it helps us find her then I think you should just answer the question." Peggy responded.

"I was waiting for her in the hangar bay when you showed up. I wasn't..." Steve's face fell, he turned to Tony. "You don't think that... That she saw..."

"You all over our friend Peggy here? She saw it all." Tony answered as he leaned back.

"I don't see what the problem is with her seeing Steve and I kissing." Peggy surprised. "We are all adults here."

"There isn't one unless emotions were involved." Tony said with smug satisfaction. "Cap here broke her heart."

"What?" Peggy asked, surprised.

"What?" Steve echoed, confused.

"Come on Rogers, everyone here at this table could see how she looked at you and how you looked at her. What do you think seeing you with another woman, especially one that you were with before, would do to her? You think she'd just be all hunky dory and skip around happily with not a care in the world?" Tony glared at Steve. "I think you're lucky she didn't go out there and try and kill you both. At least she was calm enough to just leave and not do something more drastic."

"Her leaving is more than a little drastic." Fury answered darkly.

"She didn't blow up his apartment." Tony pointed out.

"That does not make me feel any better." Steve muttered.

"You were with another woman?" Peggy asked angrily.

"Well you were kinda dead." Tony answered before Steve.

"Enough!" Fury bellowed over the table; silence fell quickly. "Steve, you made this problem you fix it. Go and get all the names and addresses of anyone she's ever been in contact with and go ask every single person on that list."

"Yes." Steve responded.

"Tony, if you have any more information that you- no, I feel is important you better speak up now because if I find it out later there will be hell to pay."

"I have no other information that will help in finding her." Tony answered evasively.

"I swear Stark, if you're withholding information -"

"I'm not withholding anything that would keep you from finding her. Anything else I know about her is something that she can tell everyone when and or if you find her."

"You better be right Stark." Fury crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the few people he had sitting at the table. "Find her, or find out what happened to her. If she's alive you bring her back."

"And if she isn't?"

"Then bring me proof."


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Steve lifted the paper that Agent Hill had given him with every name of every person Zaria had ever had contact with along with their place of work and their home address. James Rickshaw had been marked off the list quickly as the man was still in a coma in the hospital with no signs of recovery anytime soon. George and Annette had not heard from her since she had gone in with Steve to give her two weeks' notice and take her grandmother's desk with her.

The only person he hadn't tried yet was Joe, and that was for a good reason; how was he supposed to tell Joe that he had not only screwed up concerning Zaria's feelings but he had lost her too. He stood outside the apartment building that Joe lived in staring at the old brick facade trying to decide what he would say, what he would do, how he would explain things to Joe about how he screwed up. He fisted the paper in his hand, crumpling it into a balled mess and stuffing it into his pocket as he took a deep breath and walked up to the door. At the security door Steve scanned over the call buttons in search for Joe's last name and was unable to find it. Digging the paper out of his pocket he looked over the address on it then the address of the build; it was the right place.

"Hey, who you looking for?" A young kid asked as he rolled to a stop on his skateboard.

"Oh, I'm looking for a Joseph Douglas; does he live in this building?"

The kid looked confused as he tried to figure out the name. "Do you mean Big Joe? Hard core retired navy man who looks like a biker? Yeah, he lives here but his button doesn't work, I can let you in though."

"That would be appreciated." Steve said as he stuffed the paper into his pocket.

The kid tucked his skateboard up under his arm and unlocked the door. "Whatcha looking for Joe for?"

"We have a mutual friend." Steve answered evasively.

"Cool, cool." The kid commented as he swung the door open. "He's two floors up in twenty eight oh seven."

"Thanks." Steve quickly departed for the stairs to avoid any further comments from the kid. He climbed the two flights of stairs to the landing and walked along the hallway until he found the apartment number in question. Taking a deep breath he steeled himself before he knocked on the door.

Squealing issued from the other side of the door as the pounding of running feet reverberated loudly into the hall as someone approached. More loud footsteps followed close behind giving Steve the idea that the first set was smaller and younger and the other set was from someone older or taller.

"Tanya, don't open that door!" A slightly familiar female voice called from behind the door.

"But someone knocked!" A younger voice answered as the door handle wiggled.

"Tanya I said no! You know you're not allowed to answer the door!"

The door pulled open and down below the doorknob was a small girl with bright eyes, curly hair, and a big smile on her face.

"Hi Mister!" She chimed loudly.

"Tanya!" Tanya was scooped up out of view by an older girl. "What did I tell you?"

"But he knocked."

"I don't care if your grandfather knocks on this door, **you** are not allowed to open the front door, and do I make myself clear?"

"Um, excuse me." Steve said as he cleared his throat to get their attention. "I'm looking for a Joe Douglas, does he live here?"

"Yeah he lives here but he ain't here right now." The older girl answered as she turned her attention to Steve and looked a little stunned. "He, uh... He's at work." She stumbled over her words a little.

Steve pursed his lips as he looked at her, something about he just seemed so familiar. The girl was on the thin side, she looked almost a little sickly, but her sheet-like straight red hair was bright as it fell below her shoulders with fringe around her face that almost completely covered her left side, and her eyes were a very familiar color; a color that was neither blue nor green and would have been right at home on the face of his friend Bucky Barnes.

"Zaria?" Steve asked feeling confused and shocked.

"Hey mister that's not her name! Her name is Jenny!" Tanya shouted in that loud kid voice.

"Tanya, go play with your sister in the living room." The girl that could be Zaria said as she set the little girl down.

"But I don't wanna!"

"You'll go play with your sister or you'll go sit on your hands in the kitchen. Grown-ups have to talk." The girl responded as she turned her attention to the small child.

"I hate poopy grown-up talk." Tanya muttered as she stamped off in a huff.

"It's you, isn't it?" Steve asked when the little girl was out of sight.

Zaria nodded as she crossed her arms. "So how'd you find me?"

"I, we- we didn't." Steve answered. "We were trying to look for clues about your location. You're going by Jenny now?"

"Yeah, figured it was the easiest way to avoid you finding me."

"But why? Why go to all this trouble to disappear? Why even disappear in the first place? Do you know how worried I was because you were gone?! I thought-"

"Worried?" Zaria scoffed as she tucked her hair behind her ear; there was a fresh scar running across her left cheek. "**You** were worried about me? Really? I find that hard to believe."

"We all were worried!"

Zaria laughed; it was a harsh bitter sound. "You were all just worried because I was the only link to my grandfather and I had all the information on how he turned out the way he did."

"That's not why at all! One moment you were there, you were fine, and then you were just gone! There was nothing left from you except the desk, it was like you completely vanished from existence. Why?! I don't understand at all why you would do that!" Steve had grabbed Zaria's arms and was all but shaking her as he demanded an answer.

"You're hurting me." She hissed as she shook his hands from her arms.

Steve stepped back as he tried to compose himself. "Just... why?"

Zaria looked away as she tucked her hair back again as if had come loose. "Look, I was really happy with you for that time, but it was obvious, painfully so, that I wasn't... up to par. When P- when she showed up I knew it was over between us and I wasn't going to stand in the way. I have no clue how in the hell she's alive and not at the age of like ninety something, and right now, honestly, I don't want you to tell me either. You were just going to tear yourself up over having to make a decision between me and her, and it's more than a little obvious who would have won that one."

She sighed as she stared at him. "Look, just... let me live in peace. Don't tell your annoying as all hell "Director" where I am. I don't want any trouble, I doubt your friend is going to come looking for me with my new name and if he does I'll just disappear again; I'm pretty good at that."

Steve pursed his lips as he stared at her. Emotions warred within him as he tried to decide what he should do. Clearly she wanted to be left alone, but could he, in good conscious, leave her alone knowing that it was more than a little possible that her grandfather would be back to kill her? And not to mention how weak she looked now. The cut on her face should have healed completely over without a trace and yet it was puffy and pink like a new scar. He went back and forth with indecision, wavering between honoring her request and dragging her back with him to the ship so Samantha could look her over and make sure she was okay. What was the right choice? The moral choice, the "good" choice.

"Jenny, are you ready to go? We don't want to be a late for that appointment. I'm so excited we get to find out the gender today!" Another female voice called from down a hall. "Are you going to- oh," she stopped when she saw Steve in the doorway. "Am I interrupting?"

"No." Zaria answered harshly.

"Yes." Steve answered at the same time.

Zaria shot a look at Steve but the look on his face told her she was no longer going to get the easy way out of this. "If you could grab my bag from the other room and fill my up another bottle of water, I'll be ready about the time you get back to the door."

"Sure..." The new woman eyed Steve suspiciously. "Do you need me to call my dad...?"

"No," Zaria responded quickly. "No, Joe doesn't need to come home to handle this, I got it. Just, give me a moment okay?"

"Okay sure, but if I get back and you still got that look on your face I'm gonna go get dad's shotgun." With that the other woman turned and disappeared down the hall.

"Are you going to the doctors?" Steve questioned, concerned.

"Not that it's really any of your business, but yes, I am." Zaria answered, crossing her arms under her chest.

"What did she mean by "gender"?"

"If you don't know, then you really don't want to know. Is that all? Are we done here?"

"Are you... You're pregnant, aren't you? Aren't you?" Steve questioned with rapid words as it dawned on him what it could mean.

Zaria hit her head against the door. "Yeah, I'm pregnant."

"How - How long?"

"You don't want to know the answer to the question."

"Were you- were you pregnant before you met me?"

"... No..."

Steve nearly stumbled as it felt as if the floor suddenly dropped out from under him. "It's mine, right? You're pregnant with my child, right?"

Zaria left out a long, slow breath. "Yes, the child is yours."

"Why didn't you tell me? Is this why you disappeared? This wasn't your choice to make! I would have-"

Zaria held up her hand to stop him from continuing. "I know what you're going to say and I'm going to stop you right there. I am not an obligation. I don't need you to "do what's right" because that would have made both of us miserable. You clearly love her more than you loved me and if I had told you that day that I was pregnant you would have chosen me, I know that. You would have made a great father, and you would have tried to be a good husband, but we both know how that would have ended. I don't want you to forsake your feelings just because I happen to be pregnant with your child. This is the twenty-first century, women raise children alone all the time. It's not that difficult anymore.

"I know you're probably going to want to be in the child's life, but right now I have to request that you aren't. I don't think I could be okay with seeing my child around... her... I know I made my choice to leave, I know that I didn't give you an option to give me your opinion, but I just... can't... I can't handle any more pain. I don't want you to feel obligated to help me in anyway. I also don't expect you to never see this baby, but you have to give me time. I need time and space from you and everyone else that is involved with you. It's hard enough as it is as I'm sure you've noticed by now, I can't- I won't be able to handle anything else for a while."

"Hey Jenny, are you ready to go...?" The woman from earlier asked as she reappeared. "Kelly is going to watch Tanya so we don't need to take her with us."

Zaria looked at Steve, who probably looked as stunned as he felt, and then nodded. "Yeah," she answered softly. "Can't be late for the appointment."

The other woman made her way past the bewildered Steve, eyeing him as she did, and waited on the landing for Zaria.

Zaria moved Steve back and shut the door to the apartment, locking it as she did, before turning back to Steve. "When I am ready I will find you. I'll try not to wait long before finding you, of letting S.H.I.E.L.D. find me. Just... give me time to get over the pain of losing something I thought I would have for a very long time."

With that she left, leaving Steve standing there to process everything. Still at a loss for words and not able to find the strength to run after her and demand more answers or that he be involved in all of this he turned and slowly made his way down the stairs and out of the building. He walked down the street, hands in his pockets, mulling over what Zaria had said to him. He wanted to hold it all against her, it was her choice to leave in the first place so why tell him he couldn't be around, but he could see the pain in her eyes, pain that he himself had put there with his carelessness. She was also right that he wouldn't have been truly happy with her even if he wanted to do what was right and help her raise the child, at least he wouldn't be happy enough with her now that Peggy was back.

Blaring horns snapped Steve back to reality causing him to check to see if he had walked into the street only to see a sleep silver car that was probably worth more than any of the people living on this street would make in their lifetime flip a U in front of oncoming traffic and stop right next to him: with Tony in the driver seat.

"From the look on your face I take it didn't go well." Tony said as he popped open the door for Steve to get in.

"Not really." Steve answered moodily.

Tony studied Steve's face for a long moment before he turned and pulled away from the curb in a squeal of tires and the blare of car horns; Steve gripped the security bar tightly.

"Want to talk about it?" Tony asked after a moment of silence.

"No," Steve answered sullenly.

"Well I'm here for you buddy." Tony responded.

Steve gave him a confused look. "You are usually not this caring of other people."

"Eh, I'm just trying to cheer you up. Think of it this way, if she were in the hands of your buddy we'd have heard about it by now. And if she was dead I'm sure Fury would have seen something in the obituaries since they've been looking."

"...That sounds more like you..." Steve nearly groaned.

"So how did that guy... Joe I think you said his name was how did he take it that you can't find her?"

"He, uh... He wasn't there... I didn't need to ask him if he knew where she was."

"Didn't need to? So he knows where she is? Did he tell you where?"

"I said I didn't get to ask him, didn't I?" Steve lied trying to cover up his mistake. "His daughter told me they hadn't heard of her."

"Of her?"

"I thought I said from her." Steve lied again.

Tony shot him a sideways look with a smug smile. "I guess I misheard you."

Several hours later and the doorbell rang for the second time in one day at the Douglas residence and for the second time little feet smacked the old wood floor to race to open the door.

"I swear to god Tanya you are going to get a spanking!" A female voice called from behind the door just before it opened.

"Hi Mister!" Tanya called as she stared up at him.

"Well hello there, can I speak to your mommy?" Tony answered as he pointed to the redhead behind Tanya.

Tanya looked over her shoulder at Zaria. "That's not my mommy, that's Jenny!"

"Tanya, go play with your sister and do not question me this time." Zaria answered as she scooted the girl towards the hall.

"I hate poppy grown-ups..." Tanya muttered as she stormed down the hall.

Zaria crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at Tony. "So I guess Steve couldn't keep his mouth shut and told you where I was."

"No, he attempted, failed, but attempted to not let me know where you were. He just sucks at lying and I had a pretty good idea that this was where you would be from the beginning. I just didn't know you'd get caught." Tony answered as she shoved his hands in his pockets. "Grab your stuff we're going for a ride."

"And why in hell would I do that?"

"Because I know you need money for things for that baby you still plan on having and I can offer you a job that will give you more than enough money to get you into your own place under whatever name you want without having Fury figuring out it's you." Tony answered smugly.

Zaria's eyes narrowed as she seethed at him before turning around, grabbing her purse, yelling down the hall to someone else that she was going out, and shutting the door before they could answer. "You know I really hate you right now, right?"

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

They were speeding through the streets of New York faster than Zaria was comfortable with. She scowled at Tony as she hunkered down into the seat and tried not to be noticed as she was clearly not dressed well enough for such a fancy car as Tony was. Not that she could be really noticed at the speed they were going, she still wasn't willing to risk it; especially with Tony's known flair for the dramatics and the paparazzi.

"Where are we going?" Zaria asked darkly.

"My tower."

Zaria stared at him, stupefied. "Your tower... The tower that S.H.I.E.L.D. has basically hijacked from you to use as a base of operations at times... The tower that is one giant glaring obviously ridiculous piece of self-appreciation that you built to yourself is where you're taking me? And you think no one will be able to find me there...?"

"Relax, I have everything covered." Tony swerved into the parking lot of the tower.

"I hope you do..." Zaria muttered as she got out of the car when he parked it.

Tony led the way to the private elevator that would take them up to the top. "Now I'm not the one who makes the decision that would as to hire you on, that's Pepper's job, although I'm sure we can work something out, but first..." The elevator dinged and the doors opened silently to reveal one large room with several people standing around in it.

In the time they stepped off Zaria noticed Pepper looking pissed, Steve standing off to one side with a brunette and Tony looking positively pleased with himself; she'd been duped.

"Zaria?" Steve asked, stunned to see her there. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, but I won't because I already have the answer from the look on Tony's face." Zaria answered coldly. "I should have known with you. There is no way you would ever offer me a job and still keep my secret. I thank you for reminding me why I never trusted people to begin with."

Tony raised his hands. "The job offer was real, I just think that this is a good way to settle our differences so we can all be nice to each other and move on. I don't want a stressful workplace."

"Is this that relative of Bucky?" The brunette that could only be Peggy asked Steve. "So we found her right? We can just take her back to Fury and have this whole thing over and done with and move on to more important things."

"You must be Peggy." Zaria said in an acid laced, sweet tone. "For your information I am still standing right here in the building so you clearly don't need to speak about me as if I'm not here. And so you know, there is no way you can just "take me back to Fury" so you can be "over and done" with whatever it is that you're wanting to be done with. I will not be going anywhere near S.H.I.E.L.D. or any over secret government agency ever again so good luck with that one.

"And you," Zaria turned to Steve and stared at him. "Good job at keeping where I was a secret for a whole of, what, ten minutes? Clearly Tony figured it out without much effort so I doubt that Fury is going to have any problem finding out where I was as well so now I'm going to have to go somewhere else to stay away from all of you, again."

"I don't appreciate you speaking to him in that manner." Peggy snapped. "You are the one that disappeared with valuable information and you can't just think that if you get tired of helping out you can just leave, that's not how this works."

"Nor does coming back from the dead but clearly here you are at the same age you were when Steve last knew you so don't talk to me about "how things work" honey because I can tell you a whole lot of how that's just never going to cut it." Zaria's eye twitched as she put her hand on her stomach. "We were all doing fine before you showed up and now here you are as if seventy years never passed. Steve's no better though so I can hardly blame you for the entire thing."

Zaria pinched her lips in a tight, grim line as she looked at Tony. "Thanks for this wonderfully tense and stressful situation and that job offer but I think I'm going to decline both more time here and that job offer, so if you could just tell me how I can get back to Joe's place so I can pack up and leave again that would be great. I've had enough."

"Are you alright?" It was Pepper's voice as she came over to Zaria. "You don't look well."

"I'll be fine as soon as I leave here, this has not been an easy sixteen weeks and the next twenty four will be just as difficult or even more so. So I would like to avoid any more stressful situations and just leave."

Peggy's eyes widened as she shot a look at Tony. "You knew about this and you still did this to her? Come on, I'll take you home."

Zaria followed Peggy to the elevator surreptitiously watching Pepper as she gave a foul look then held open the elevator. "Oh." Zaria stopped and turned around to see Peggy. "One more thing. Since you pretty much ruined my life I think I have the right to know how the hell are you still alive and not at the age of ninety something."

"I don't have to answer you." Peggy snapped.

"I think you owe it to me to answer the damn question before I break that pretty little nose of yours." Zaria responded with malice.

"Peggy, please. Just answer her question and she'll leave." Steve pleaded.

Peggy scowled. "I signed up for a test with the military, I was successfully cryogenically frozen and awakened recently as to the fact that they were unable to successfully awaken any of the others at the time of the test. They wanted to see if it was possible if Rogers would be able to survive if he had hit the snow caps instead of the ocean, the test was deemed unsuccessful and I was left frozen to wait until a later date to be awoken properly."

"Just wonderful," Zaria murmured. "You two can talk about being frozen together." Then she entered the elevator, the doors shutting before anyone could respond.

Pepper was watching Zaria with concern. "You're sixteen weeks now?"

"Yes..." Zaria hissed as she held her stomach. "It's been a very difficult sixteen weeks. The doctors told me to avoid any and all stressors, which is difficult when Tony dumps you into a room with your ex and his old girlfriend."

"Are you going to be alright?" Pepper placed a hand on Zaria's shoulder causing Zaria to realize she had doubled over.

"I don't honestly know..." Zaria answered as she felt something warm run down her leg. She looked down to see bright red blood running down her leg; Pepper saw it too.

"Oh my, you're... I think you're having a miscarriage. We need to get you to the hospital right now."

"Not the hospital..." Zaria gritted as her breath came out in short gasps. "It's Steve's..."

"Crap, can't have the doctors finding out about that super DNA. J.A.R.V.I.S. is Bruce in the building?" Pepper called to the A.I. system that Tony had.

"Mr. Banner is in the lab." J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

"Stop the elevator on his floor; let him know we're coming. Tell Tony what is going on and either have him or Steve, or even you call Clint and find out if he can bring Samantha here to help." The elevator stopped, the doors whooshing open to Bruce with a rolling chair.

"It's the best I could find so quickly." He said half apologetically.

"It's better than having her walk." Pepper answered.

"Mr. Barton did not pick up should I try again?"

"Yes! Yes, try again. Try as many times as possible, we need Samantha here as of five minutes ago." Pepper answered as she helped push Zaria to an empty lab room.

"I'm sorry Zaria; this is the best we have here right now." Bruce said apologetically as he lifted her and laid her gently on the table.

"Just... just make it stop." Zaria answered as she tried not to curl into a ball.

"I'm going to try." Bruce answered honestly. "But I'm not a medical doctor and until Samantha gets here I'm not sure what's going to happen."

The elevator's doors opened to the sound of Steve's voice calling for Zaria.

"Pepper, if you would please keep them out of here, I won't be able to work with all of them panicking and that definitely won't help Zaria."

"Of course." Pepper said with a nod.

"And if you could see about getting Samantha here as fast as possible that would also be wonderful."

"I'll see if I can't have Tony go and pick her up."

Bruce nodded. "Now Zaria, I'm going to need you to help me through this because this is not going to be easy."


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"Dr. Davenport, how is she?" Steve's voice echoed into the lab room that Zaria was in. She turned her head to the door, dried sweat making her hair stick to her face, as she listened to their voices.

"She'll be fine; we managed to save the baby but only just." Samantha answered, she sounded tired.

"What... what happened? Why did she almost have a miscarriage?" Concern laced Steve's voice, wrenching Zaria's heart and spasming the muscles in her abdomen. She turned her head away from the door and just focused on breathing; she couldn't have another episode like earlier.

Samantha sighed. "Her body is rejecting the baby."

"Why? Why would it do that?"

"We see this in patients where the parents have two different Rh factors, that's the positive or negative that you see on your blood tests. The difference in Rh factors becomes a problem after the first child when the woman's body creates antibodies to fight off the unknown Rh factors, so it's more likely for a woman to have a miscarriage after her first child but Zaria's body is rejecting the child now which I can only equate to the extreme differences between your DNA and her's."

"What do you mean? Why is that a problem?"

"Steve, you were genetically enhanced through some science experiment. I know that Zaria carried some of a similar type of enhanced DNA as yours but either the difference in the two is making them reject each other or Zaria's human half is rejecting your enhanced DNA as a foreign substance."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means..." Samantha stopped, Zaria could almost feel the weight of the pause from where she was and knew the answer was not something she really wanted to hear, but she couldn't shut Samantha's voice out. "It means that carrying this child to term could kill her or the child."

"Is there anything we can do to keep that from happening?" Steve sounded desperate.

"Short from having her abort the child, I honestly don't know at this point."

"Why can't you convince her to do that? That baby isn't worth her life!"

"You're welcome to try and convince her to do that, but from what I know of women and their babies, if they've made it this far it's highly unlikely that they will ever abort their child. The only other thing I can tell you is that Bruce and I will be monitoring her through the rest of this pregnancy and see if there is anything else we can do to help her, but for now there are no other options."

"Can I see her?"

"I would advise against it, honestly. She's been through a lot today and needs to rest. It would be best if you waited until she was up."

Steve sighed. "Alright. Thank you Dr. Davenport."

Heavy footsteps faded down the hall before the door opened and Samantha slipped inside.

"Ah, you're awake." She commented though it seemed more like she had already known that and was just stating the obvious. She made her way over to the table that Zaria was lying on and inspected the machines before continuing. "I assume you heard all of that."

"My child is trying to kill me." Zaria cracked and she tried to clear it though that just made her throat hurt as she was sure her voice hoarse from earlier.

"That's the gist of it. It is highly probable that giving birth will kill you, your child or both of you. At this point it would be best to abort the child to avoid any risk to your health at a later date, but I can see that it is not an option you're willing to take. So, Bruce and I will continue to monitor your health while we see if there is anything we can do to help you along with this pregnancy."

"So I still have the baby?" Zaria questioned to clarify.

Samantha nodded. "Yes, yes you still have the child. You are very lucky; we normally don't see women keep their child when they go into a miscarriage like you did. Either you or that child just didn't want to give up yet."

Zaria nodded, closing her eyes and trying to get comfortable. "Did anyone call Joe?"

"Yes, Mr. Douglas has been informed of your location."

"Did... Was he told about what happened...?"

"No, we just told him where you were and who you were with."

"Oh I'm sure that went over well... Joe doesn't really like Steve at the moment."

"We didn't tell him you were here with Steve..." Samantha admitted. "We didn't think that would go over well either so we fibbed a little."

"Probably for the best." Zaria agreed as she shifted around on the table again.

"I'm sorry, that must be very uncomfortable. We're trying to find a bed for you for the evening."

"Why can't I go home?"

Samantha perched on a chair and Zaria knew that she was going to be frank with her. "We can't let you leave just yet. I want to make sure that there will be no other issues tonight then we'll see about letting you go home tomorrow."

The door opened and Bruce stepped in. "Tony has a room set up just down the hall for her if you're ready to move her."

"I'm ready to get off this table, and I will walk before you try and offer me another office chair to be wheeled in." Zaria responded as she sat up gingerly, clutching the sheet to her chest as her hand-me-down clothing had been trashed long ago. Her whole body ached and shook with the effort to sit up, she had spent all the energy she had left and it made her feel weak and vulnerable, two things she hated the most.

"I would rather you not walk, and since we don't have a wheelchair we can compromise and I can carry you." Bruce offered.

Zaria's eyes widened. "What?"

"Don't worry, Bruce is one of the most chivalrous men in this tower at the moment and you can either let him carry you or I will find one of the other men to carry you or you can be wheeled in a chair. Your choice." Samantha smiled a toothy grin as she knew she had won the argument.

Zaria sighed. "Fine, whatever." She muttered as she tried to hold onto what dignity she had left.

Samantha smiled. "I'll get the door; just don't jostle her too much."

"Of course." Bruce answered as he went over to the table and carefully lifted Zaria off the table, tucking the sheet up under her as he did to refrain from exposing her nakedness. He was gentle with her and didn't jostle her around as he carried her down the hallway. She wondered when the last time someone had carried her so gently, as if she were something precious and important. Steve had carried her from the training room while she had been on the helicarrier but that didn't seem to have the same feeling as this, maybe it was due to the care Bruce took and how much more serene his personality was that made the feeling of being carried different. Or maybe she was over thinking it due to the amount of stress she had just been in and the fact that she couldn't take any medication for the pain.

Heat crept up Zaria's cheeks as she realized how much she was thinking about the way Bruce was carrying her and instantly forced herself to derail that train of thought. There was no way she was going to keep mulling over thoughts that were remotely similar to anything she felt for Steve. So she reined her emotions and thoughts then clamped a lid on them to make sure they didn't get out of control again. Being a bitter, cold hearted person was easier than trying to have anything remotely happy right now.

"Here we are." Bruce's voice cut through herself loathing and made her viscerally aware of her body pressed against his chest, but before her emotions could reign out of control he gently set her on the bed they had set up in yet another lab room, though this one had been hastily set up as a hospital room.

Zaria tried not to look as relieved as she felt when he finally put her down while quickly stamping out that part in her mind that nearly begged her to be held again. She was an adult and she would act like one. Why part of her couldn't understand that she was better off out of relationships than in them miffed her but she would get over it eventually; it was just the baby hormones that made her miss having someone in her life, or so she told herself.

"I'll find you something to wear." Samantha's voice snapped Zaria back to the room. "Try to get some rest and if you need anything just tell J.A.R.V.I.S. and he will find either Bruce or I to help you, alright?"

"Yeah, sure." Zaria answered quickly as she waited for them to leave before letting herself fall back against the propped up hospital bed. She sat there in the silence in the dimly lit room she was now resting in as she considered her options. Could she willingly abort her child to save her own life? There were women out there that would have no problem with this decision but she just couldn't do it.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" She croaked as she cleared her throat again.

"Yes Ms. Barnes?" J.A.R.V.I.S. answered.

"Zaria, please." She answered almost automatically. "What is the chance that both my baby and I could survive the pregnancy and birth?"

"With the limited information I was able to attain from Ms. Davenport and Mr. Banner I would say you have less than fifteen percent chance of survival for both you and the baby."

"Mmm... Well that's better than nothing... I think I'll take a chance with that."


End file.
